Harry Potter and the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit
by defiasstone2
Summary: Harry Potter, sick of the Wizarding world and mourning the loss of his closest companions, enacts a ritual not completed since the time of Merlin. His aim is to get away from the pain and bitter memories of his old life, and with the appearance of aliens and flurries of green plasma death, in this new world he will not be short of distractions... Based on X-Com: Enemy Unknown
1. Out of the Fire

"Are you sure you want to do this Harry?" With a world weariness that most would not believe possible in a boy of only 23, Harry Potter shrugged before looking over at his best friend Hermione, or the portrait of her at any rate.

"Not like I have a lot left to do here Hermione, if it weren't for your forethought of making a portrait after we killed Riddle I wouldn't even have you left, you did tell me on the Horcrux hunt that 'leaving a man alone with his scars isn't healthy'." His verbatim quote had Hermione wince slightly, her face twitching into a sad smile as she gestured out of the window.

"You know they will keep looking for you, even after you have gone? The 'Master of Death' and 'The Man Who Conquered', though I suppose we didn't really conquer anything in the end did we?" Hermione trailed off for a moment, face twisting into a bitter frown as she looked at the books of the Hogwarts Library, leaving Harry to fill the void even as he continued passing magic into the massive runic array he had set up in the Room of Requirement.

"Just as no-one knows where I buried you, or Ron, or..." Ginny's name faltered on his tongue, each and every precious memory he had of the youngest Weasley passing through his mind, eyes moistening for a moment before he steeled himself once more.

"It will be one last great prank, that will have people searching for centuries in the hopes they get their hands on one of these three artifacts, maybe I will even make it into a storybook someday..." Hermione snorted and with a wave of her hand summoned a book to her that she waved in his direction.

"You are already in story books Harry, I am surprised you somehow managed to miss the row dedicated to you and the stories of your childhood whilst we were at Hogwarts, though given the shit we went through to try and save the 'Wizarding World' we did have bigger things on our minds most of the time. Now you are going to try and pull a Merlin and disappear without a trace after taking down three of the most disgusting members of wizarding society, so I think you will make the story books, just not as the hero that we know you are..."

"One person's hero is another's villain, don't worry about it Hermione, it's not as if what they think matters to me anymore. Now, that looks to be enough power, so if you don't mind Hermione..." With an exasperated sigh his closest remaining friend put away her current book and wagged a finger in his direction.

"Fine, shrink me down, but if you get us killed Potter..." With a flick of the elder wand the portrait was reduced back down to the size it was originally, easily able to fit in his pocket and allow him to continue with what was probably the most foolish thing he had ever done.

Merlin, contrary to popular belief, hadn't died/been imprisoned/whatever else people claimed happened to him after the fall of King Arthur. Instead he had, for the lack of a better word, gotten bored of the other wizards who tried to hail him as a god and had retreated from the public view for almost 200 years before trying out some theoretical magic he had devised himself.

How did Harry know this? Because Merlin had in fact been the one to tutor the Hogwart's Founders and help them found their school, though he had insisted that he never be mentioned publicly in any form, probably because of the already ridiculous myths that surrounded his name by that point. Thankfully though Slytherin was every bit of the consummate scholar that Rowena was claimed to be, making meticulous notes of every piece of work that the Founder's had helped Merlin work on, meaning that when Merlin announced his intentions to try and find a new dimension all of their trials and attempt notes were kept in the Chamber of Secrets.

Harry found these after retreating there in his own attempt to escape from the viciousness that was the Wizarding World, to some the solution to each and every little problem they had and to others he was the anti-christ to their ideals and traditions, too all the 'Boy-Who-Lived' not Harry Potter. And after the deaths of his best friend and loved ones, it wasn't like he had much else to distract himself with, so he spent his time learning all that he could.

It was only when he found himself walking the halls of Hogwarts on his way to get food, under his invisibility cloak of course, and he found himself failing to recognise any of those he flitted and shifted between that Harry chose this final course of action.

The chances of the ritual working were about 30%, and even then Harry had no control over where the ritual would take him, all he would be able to do was hang on for dear life and wait to see what happened. But he was okay with that. After all, as Albus Dumbledore had said to him almost half a decade before, this was just his next great adventure...

There was a flash of light as the runes activated, the wind rushing and swirling through the area like a miniature hurricane, magical fluctuations disrupting wards and activating all sorts of obscure enchanted items throughout the UK. And in the next moment, Harry Potter was gone...

!"£$%^&*()_+

Kumiko Goto knew that she was probably out of her depth at this point, even as she managed to drag her eyes away from the partially melted soldier who had just breathed his last, this definitely wasn't what she had expected when she signed up for X-Com. It wasn't as if she hadn't read the dossiers, what little of it wasn't covered in classified black tape at any rate, but she had assumed that it was just a cover for some kind of anti-terrorist organisation.

"...Don't know what this is, but this sure as hell is no satellite." Snapping out of her thoughts as her teammate Delta-3 finished speaking, Kumiko realised that she had probably missed her order to move up next.

Luckily there was very little in the way of actual cover for her to move forward to, the police car pulled over near to the warehouse being the only place she could probably reach without leaving herself overly exposed, so with a last solemn glance at the german soldier she pushed forwards.

"Right, let's get inside this place. Delta-1, go and take a look." Kumiko made it to the police car just in time to see David move forwards towards one of the large windows that fronted the building.

Out of the corner of her eye Kumiko saw the object Delta-3 was using as cover suddenly start sparking and flashing, the man barely managing to dive to the side and next to Delta-2 before *FLASH*. The sudden flash blinded Kumiko completely, and the startled cries helped her realise it wasn't just her who had been caught looking at the device when it flashed.

"Delta, what is going on? Your camera's went dead for a moment there." Wiping at her eyes with her free hand, Kumiko strained her hearing as she ran through possible worst case scenarios, if that had been an alien trap then it worked brilliantly.

"The device seemed to react to something Control, no sign of alien movement though so doubtful this is a trap, moving forward to the warehouse." Delta-3, Maxim's, report came as her vision was finally clearing.

"Very well Delta, regardless of whether this was an intentional alien ploy or not, you need to storm that building now. Given what they did to these soldiers we do not want them being prepared for us." As she moved forward to take up a similar position to Delta-1 on the opposite end of the wall, Kumiko couldn't shake the feeling that was slowly rising up the back of her neck, the feeling of being watched...Studied even.

It was a 6th sense that had saved her life more than once, but as she peered around one last time she couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, and then Delta-1 burst through the window and any chance of doing things stealthily went down the koi pond. Doing her best to ignore her screaming instincts Kumiko kicked the window to her left in before surging through, even as Maxim called in spotting the soldier they had heard calling for help before.

As she settled into cover behind some crates, Kumiko laid eyes upon their new objective as well, stood in an open shaded area of the warehouse armed with both a shotgun and a hand grenade.

"This doesn't scream trap at all..." Her mutter comment was meant to have only been a thought to herself, so she almost jumped out of her skin when she heard a murmur of agreement from behind her!

"Don't..." The feeling of something being pressed into the exposed flesh of the back of her neck made Kumiko regret not insisting harder on the need for head protection, as it meant that she couldn't even warn her team of the trap they were facing as Maxim moved forwards

!"£$%^&*()_+

Harry had expected a rougher trip in all honesty, one second he was stood in the Room of Requirement, the next he was stood in the middle of what looked to be a muggle street. Given the general destruction around him, the corpses and the woman armed with a fairly large gun in front of him, it didn't look like he had arrived at a good time however. Thankfully he had been prepared for an eventful landing and had the Cloak covering him when the ritual activated, meaning that though the woman waved the gun in his direction it was impossible for her to have seen him.

When she shook her head and moved on a moment later Harry followed, if only to try and find out a little bit more about what was going on. There were three others with her, and given their comments Harry assumed they were being co-ordinated from elsewhere, probably through the complicated headgear they were all wearing. From the look of how they were moving, they were almost certainly 'looking' for something, which meant these people were unlikely to be the cause of the destruction that made up the street behind him.

Which meant that they were probably after who, or what, had caused said devastation. So Harry followed the woman in front of him as she moved forward to take position at one of the windows, using the elder wand to silence his feet when she looked around suspiciously once more, primarily to see if he could help in some way. Not to boast but Harry liked to think of himself as something of an expert regarding this kind of situation.

The team were obviously not used to working together, as the man furthest from him broke through the window and jumped in before the others were ready, but Harry had worked with worse amateurs in his time with the Order of The Phoenix. The rest of the team followed him in through other entryways a moment later, obviously subtlety was not their strong suit as they made enough noise to wake a sleeping giant, though given the obvious trap with the soldier stood in the middle of the room whoever the enemy was they were already prepared for them.

"This doesn't scream trap at all..." The woman's words in front of him mirrored his own thoughts so perfectly that he murmured a soft agreement before realising what he was doing.

Well trained reflexes were already in action as he saw the woman stiffen, elder wand out and pressed to the base of her neck before she could make a sound.

"Don't..." Harry would have continued with a spiel about he was on their side etc, but then one of the men moved forward to check on the soldier and everything went to hell...

[]{}#%^*+=

Kumiko's life had flashed before her eyes a couple of times in the first 10 seconds of the ambush, and given both Delta 1 and Delta 3 had been taken out in the first volleys the situation could certainly have been better. The aliens, because that is the only thing she could realistically call the small grey bodied things, had obviously been waiting for the soldier to gun down Delta-3 before opening fire with a torrent of green coloured projectiles that tore through her cover like it was nothing.

The only reason she was still alive right now was her mysterious captor somehow throwing her to her left, which given he had a weapon pointed to her head should have been impossible with only one hand. Still, given whoever it was hadn't ended her life the moment Delta-3 had gone down, Kumiko had bigger things to worry about.

"Throwing grenade!" She shouted for the benefit of Delta-2, who had shifted forwards to flank the alien who had first attacked her, taking it down in a hail of bullets even as she unhooked her grenade and threw it as accurately as she could before ducking out of the other alien's fire.

"Delta-4, there is another alien moving up behind you, get out of there!" Even as there was the satisfying sound of her grenade exploding and the accompanying pained scream of the alien she had just taken down, Kumiko's blood froze at Central's warning. She turned, trying to raise her gun, but as she saw the alien pull it's trigger she knew she was already too late.

Shifting to try and avoid the projectiles, Kumiko was surprised when suddenly a force slammed into her from her right, sending her careening to the floor but out of harm's way. The alien seemed almost as surprised as she was, staring blankly at her for a second before raising it's gun, catching three bullets in the face from her assault rifle before it could either dodge or fire again.

Scrambling to her feet as Delta-2 swept the area, Kumiko checked the area where she had previously been stood for signs of her attacker, but she could catch no sign of them.

"Control... I think it's over." Delta-2's comment merely made Kumiko shake her head and raise her rifle.

"Something wrong Delta-4?" The voice of their new Commander surprised Kumiko slightly, but then she nodded her head and tried to work out how to word what had just happened... There aren't many ways someone can claim to be held hostage without anyone knowing and then saved by their hostage taker, who then disappears without a trace, not without sounding completely crazy at least...

 **A/N: All credit for this one goes to Malcho1234, who had this idea on his profile and I have with his permission borrowed the idea and given it form. I will admit, this story is just because I think the Ethereals trying to work out what the hell Harry is and how to deal with him, though of course X-com has to encounter him and get over him first.**

 **Kumiko survived as well, more by luck than by any planning by Harry, though she is now paranoid about the whole incident... What happens next? Wait until next time to find out!**


	2. Into the Spider's Web

It had been a rather tense trip back in the newly dubbed 'X-Com' aircraft for Harry, the woman's revelation about his intervention and taking her hostage making the atmosphere aboard the plane tense, something only added to by the corpses of their comrades, the german soldiers and the honest to god aliens all stacked with varying levels of respect on the other side of what he had heard was called the skyranger.

Delta-2 had gone to sleep, the man looking like he could sleep for several weeks at least, though his sleep was very restless until Harry hit him with a light sleeping charm whilst Delta-4 was looking the other way. Thankfully she didn't see the small flash of light, though Harry knew that if he was going to stick around for a while he would need to work on lessening the visual part of his magic when he used it, given the whole alien thing it was unlikely that this X-Com would take kindly to his magic.

It wasn't a long trip thankfully, which meant they were probably somewhere in Central Europe, otherwise Delta-4 would have probably bumped into him in what was obviously meant to be her 'subtle' pacing of the entire cargo bay. Whether she actually suspected he was there or not Harry wasn't sure, but he was impressed with her alertness given what she had just been through.

"And we are coming into land now, get ready for a welcome party..." The announcement from the pilot pre-empted their descent, though it did kind of ruin the attempted surprise entrance of half a dozen heavily armed and armoured men and women.

"Everyone maintain spacing, if Delta-4 is right there is something else on this ship, which means that this new alien must have some way of cloaking themselves..." Huh, this could get annoying quickly, luckily X-Com didn't know of his other abilities just yet.

Spotting a set of crates over on the other side of the hangar they seemed to be in, Harry apparated to the top of the crates, repeated practice meaning that his departure and reappearance were almost silent. He saw Delta-4 spin round and draw her pistol, though none of the others seemed to have noticed the noise, meaning that when she directed them towards where he had previously been stood the others found nothing.

Harry would feel a little bad about making her look absolutely nuts later, but for now he was focusing on the two men who were stood at the entrance to the plane, obviously these two were in charge. Moving closer so that he could hear what the pair were discussing, Harry very quickly ascertained the command structure of this new and mysterious organisation.

"Commander, are you sure that Delta-4 is right? It might just be an hallucination from the alien tech that has made her think there was something else in that warehouse." The man speaking was the only one not in combat armour who was obviously not a hangar worker, though given how he was directing the others to search the rest of the plane he certainly had some authority, even if it was clear he was deferring to the woman next to him whilst doing so.

"You want me to send her to the psych ward for eval? You wouldn't be the first to dismiss the gut feeling of another soldier Bradley..." The light tone of the surprisingly young woman was quiet enough that it was only the other officer and Harry that heard her, the Commander's gaze fixed on Delta-4 as she looked increasingly frustrated as the other soldiers finished their sweep.

She was probably in her late twenties, with shoulder length red hair and the sort of build that came with the very active lifestyle of a soldier, her body tense and ready to jump to cover despite the lack of concern her tone implied. She wore the same combat armour as the members of Delta team had worn, though it was clear as she shifted in place somewhat uncomfortably that the armour was probably brand new.

"It's not that I don't believe her Commander, the aliens might well have another plan, but why would the other alien help us? From what Delta-4 told us he saved her life twice, it would have been easy for it to wipe out our team with the others..." Being referred to as an alien didn't upset Harry as much as he thought it would, though he was probably rationalising a bit too much when he agreed that he classified as such for not being from _this_ Earth.

"Because if it had, then it wouldn't have been able to get a ride right back to our base of operations like it has now..." The way the commander spoke made Harry realise how his actions might be misinterpreted, though one had to be really paranoid to take his life saving antics in such a manner.

"Security, this is Bradford..." Bradford was cut off as the Commander raised her hand, gesturing round the room dismissively.

"If Kumiko and I aren't going completely mad then this alien has already managed to sneak off the skyranger without us being able to stop them, then locking down this hangar or even the entire base will probably hinder us more than it will hinder them. If it does have some kind of cloaking system then we will go see Dr Vahlen now, I am sure either she or Shen will have some ideas about how to get around the problem." The obvious invitation was so much of a trap that Harry nearly didn't follow the pair as they moved away, the commander pausing to greet both of the surviving team as they did so, but then he realised it might well be a double bluff to try and stop him following them.

"Of course Commander, but I will have security doubled just in case, I would prefer not to have an invisible alien scoping out our base if we can avoid it." As the two continued walking Harry got the distinct impression that the Commander was new to the base, Bradford providing commentary on various sections of the base as they passed through the hangar and then the barracks, though it was clear he was holding some information back.

"Commander, I hear we might have an infiltration problem." The moment they had walked into what was obviously the lab Harry's 6th sense had gone off, warning him of danger. Looking around the work stations, with machines and equipment that would have Hermione trying to claw her way out of her painting to get a chance to play with, Harry ended his scan by focussing on the woman who had just spoken.

She was probably in her early to mid thirties, and despite her slight build and lack of weapons Harry got the distinct impression this woman was the biggest threat in the base, if not physically than strategically. She reminded him of Hermione, and given that they currently thought he was an adversary that was not a good comparison from his point of view. Probably best if he tried to convince them of his peaceful intentions now, lest the Commander was actually serious in coming up with countermeasures to try and stop him...

!"£$%^&*()_+

The feeling down the back of Commander Kate Rayleigh's neck was one she was familiar with, it was one of the reasons that she trusted Delta-4's word when Kumiko had informed them of her suspicions regarding this other entity, the fact the feeling hadn't abated since shortly after the Skyranger landed only supported the new recruits words.

Despite her words in the hangar though, Kate didn't think whatever it was that helped Delta-4 was with the other aliens the team had killed, it would have been easier for the alien to kill the entire team and then infiltrate the skyranger before it took off. But all that meant was that it was an unknown quantity in the chess game she had just taken charge of, and there were too many missing pieces already for her liking.

The infiltrator would almost certainly have followed her from the hangar, especially if it's intentions were to find out information about their strengths and command structure, which is what Kate would have such an infiltrator do if she had one available. She did have a plan for exposing it on the way to Engineering if it continued to take the bait, assuming that Dr Vahlen's method did not catch it out first.

"As you can see Commander, though the mission has brought us several resources regarding the aliens and their weaponry, there is only so much we can do without more information. The scientists and I have several projects that I would like to present to you in regards to what we can do with the technology you have given us so far, though with our security compromised I do not want to risk the aliens taking advantage of our work." Kate wouldn't use the term greedy, that was probably a bit strong, but Dr Vahlen was certainly very protective of her workspace and the research that went on inside it.

"Well, unless you or Dr Shen have any specific ideas regarding how to deal with our 'phantom menace', I don't think we can waste any time trying to hide information from them. We know there was at least 1 surviving alien from our first encounter, so we don't have much time before they try and strike at us again." Kate was about to continue when she saw something floating lazily through the air towards her, grabbing the offending object from the air even as she cast her eye around for where it had come from.

"What the..." Bradford's exclamation pre-empted the drawing of numerous weapons in the room, even Vahlen drawing a pistol from her coat as Kate looked down at the now crumpled paper airplane in her hand, the thick and dark coloured airborne object not only blatantly different from the paper that was available in the labs, but indeed anywhere she had seen on the base.

"Lockdown the labs, I think it is time that we had a proper conversation with our newly revealed guest." The paper airplane had proven two things to Kate, neither of which were promising to the potential danger this new entity represented with its attempt at communication.

Looking down at the short note, which was scribbled in scratchy but cursive writing, proved that the infiltrator not only knew English but also that Kumiko was in fact right and that they had some sort of cloaking device. Though whoever it was had a sense of humour given what they had put in the note, Kate thought to herself sardonically before handing the note over Dr Vahlen, though judging by their delivery method and continued evasion of her men it was probably as immature as the note itself was.

" _I prefer monster to menace, though you can 'deal' with my monster any time._ I worry that was in fact your best attempt..." She left the comment open ended, primarily because she wanted to see if she would get a response that would reveal the infiltrator's position, but also because she did enjoy playing word games when she could.

To her disappointment there was a knock on the lab doors a minute later, which was probably an indication that her initial attempt to trap their newest member had failed, but it did mean that she had cleared the room for the moment.

"Did... it just knock? Commander..." Dr Vahlen was looking like she wanted nothing more than to rush across the room and open the door, obviously this little mystery was somehow intriguing her more than the aliens that were currently being moved off of the Skyranger and in this direction.

"Leave it for now Dr, I think it has proved it doesn't have a malicious intent for the moment and for the moment I can deal with that. Given the fact that no-one in the control room has contacted us, we can assume that the multi-spectrum cameras have failed to locate our guest. Dr Shen is already working on several other countermeasures that will hopefully help us keep track of our guest if not isolate it entirely, so whilst we have some privacy why don't you tell me about what you have in terms of research projects..."

!"£$%^&*()_+

The note was probably a little immature given the circumstances, but it conveyed what he hoped proved him to not be like the little grey men in the hangar. Certainly the Commander seemed to find it amusing, though her trying to trap him in the labs was something of a sly move, thankfully he simply apparated back to the corridor the moment he realised it was a trap.

' _Probably a little unfair to use magic against these guys... But they are facing off against aliens that they have no idea regarding their capabilities, so if anything I am being helpful and giving them some practice...'_ Besides, it wasn't like he wouldn't help out where he could in the meantime, but as he gave up waiting for someone to come and answer his knock on the lab door, Harry knew that it would probably take him helping out on a few more missions before he would be able to reveal himself without risking ending up like those aliens.

Seeing as they weren't going to let them back in for the moment, Harry decided to give himself a little tour of the facility, he would need to find somewhere he could sleep safely if he was going to be in this for the long haul. He knew Hermione would love the amount of technology that was going on around him, Harry had gone muggle for a little while after killing Voldemort to try and get away from his 'fans' but nothing he had seen then came close to this.

The main room had a holographic globe for Merlin's sake, that was almost as cool as the Hogwarts magic ceiling! As Harry went to carry on his exploration however there was a sudden commotion from one of the desks, an analyst looking around for a few moments before pressing several buttons and speaking over the base's speaker system.

"Commander to the mission room, we have a situation!" That sounded like a cue to Harry, it wasn't like he had anything else to do...

!"£$%^&*()_+

The feeling she was being watched was back with a vengeance, though as she saw a 'Sectoid' get impaled on a flying piece of metal that definitely had no physical reason to be careening into the alien as it did Kumiko found she didn't mind overly much now.

Whilst this invisible alien was still determinedly avoiding making contact with them, it was supporting their team magnificently and had almost certainly saved their lives at least once thus far. So at this point, she was prepared to be gentle when she eventually got her hands on it, Kumiko would only rough it up a little before turning it over for interrogation.

"And I think that is the last of them, want us to sweep the area ma'am?" Her squad, as weird as that sounded given this was only her second mission at X-Com, had taken the random shoves and alien impaling remarkably well considering. Erin King was probably the most green soldier she had ever encountered, fresh out of military school, but since she had killed two of the Sectoids this mission Kumiko would cut her some slack.

"The civilians?" This had been a popular restaurant on the outskirts of Dallas, meaning that there must have been hundreds of civilians here when the aliens began their attack. As they had cleared the Sectoids from the restaurant Kumiko noticed several dozen civilians caked in some kind of green goop and frozen in place, but there should have been many more than that.

"Around 50 or so, we will need support from HQ to deal with them all, one of the survivors reported more aliens moving civilians aboard a UFO of some type, but the thing flew off about half an hour before we arrived." So they were too late, even with the help of her invisible... well she couldn't really call it an enemy considering it seemed to be helping them out on missions now but she sure as hell wasn't going with what the rest of her team had taken to calling it.

"Well unless our invisible friend can help with them we call it in, cordon off the area and make damn sure the U.S military don't try and step in..." There was a moment's pause, before Kumiko realised Erin was actually waiting for a response from IT.

"Just go move the bodies to the Skyranger, I will contact Control." Erin looked a little disappointed but saluted regardless, moving away to co-ordinate with Jonathan Stroud and Ji Woo Shin about her orders.

"Central, this is Skyhammer, aliens are down and area is secured, no casualties sustained though reports of dozens of kidnapped civilians." To her surprise it was the Commander who replied, though she could hear Officer Bradley talking away to someone else in the background.

"Good job Skyhammer, Sabre team are returning from their mission now and have reported similar findings at the Shangai docklands, what was the opposition?" Kumiko looked at the impaled Sectoid before sighing in annoyance at having to explain her shortcomings to her boss.

"8 of those Sectoid things, though witnesses state there were many more before we arrived. Couple of close calls but the team handled themselves well given their lack of experience, and with a little bit of help." To her surprise the Commander just gave a short chuckle before replying, no hint of derision or condemnation in her voice.

"Our phantom still shadowing you then? We thought that was likely as we haven't had any further incidents back here, though we shall have some new security features in place by the time you return in case he continues to be... shy. Your opinion on it Corporal?" Grabbing a couple of pictures with her helmet cam of the impaled Sectoid and sending them back to Central command, Kumiko looked around at the devastation around her before giving her response.

"Given what it helped us do to these aliens, I really hope whatever you do doesn't piss it off Commander, I really don't want it giving the other aliens a hand." Because if it could do this much whilst still trying to remain hidden from them, Kumiko did not want to see what it could do if they managed to corner it...

 **A/N: Now, I can already hear the 'Why would X-Com let an alien run around their base unhindered?' questions, and I will put my reply to Malco1234 who asked the same question below:**

' **To a certain extent you have to see this from the new Commander's point of view rather than how we are looking at it as X-Com veterans with an idea of how X-Com ends and X-Com 2 begins. They see one set of aliens attacking them and another that seems to be helping them in a roundabout way, for all the Commander knows Harry is another alien race that is at war with the Sectoids. If it isn't being violent towards them then there is no point trying too obviously to piss it off, especially if it can turn invisible and can access their base.**

 **And it is not as if they haven't tried to capture it, both with the team at the hangar and then locking down the labs when it was actually confirmed that Harry was present, but if we assume that the invisibility cloak does in fact provide true invisibility (including UV and IR spectrums) and combine that with apparition then he will be impossible to pin down by normal methods.**

 **So the Commander has played for time, keeping anything that Harry doesn't know about (Interceptors, Engineering etc) from being revealed just in case he is reporting back to some other aliens, until Shen and Vahlen finish their ideas to try and at least keep track of him if not actually capture him.'**

 **I hope that makes sense, and as I have alluded to these setbacks are merely making Shen and Vahlen think harder about how to capture him, so it is not like they have given up and are giving him free reign.**

 **Ideas regarding new aliens etc are more than welcome, and what does everyone think of the Commander? Interesting enough for you?**

 **Please review and let me know!**


	3. A breath of Poison

Harry didn't know how, but X-Com had certainly found a way to keep track of where he was in the base, even if they didn't seem to know where exactly he was at any given moment. The Commander didn't seem to be trying to act upon the knowledge, but whenever he entered the labs or engineering areas everything that could be considered confidential and not currently being employed out in the field was mysteriously not being worked on and out of sight.

"You know, it is rude to enter without knocking, what if I had been changing?" The other reason that Harry knew he was being tracked was the fact that the Commander seemed determined to try and engage him in conversation whenever he was following her round.

She didn't seem particularly upset at him walking into her private quarters after waiting for Bradley to come and drop off the day's reports to her, given the doors couldn't sense him under the cloak Harry either had to rely on apparition or other people to get around, which was a nice change of pace given how tense everyone else seemed to be when he was exploring.

After the first few exchanges Harry had nabbed a pen and some X-Com paper to write his replies on, a pen was easier than a quill and he didn't want to start conjuring paper in case it disappeared later on. Rather than use the airplane charm again, Harry merely switched the paper with one of the reports the Commander had already finished reading, the woman to her credit only raising an eyebrow at the sudden change before regarding the note.

"Well, if I needed proof not to piss you off that little switching trick would definitely cover it, bad enough that we can only lock down your access to our armory about half the time as it is. And whilst I am glad you don't think seeing me undressed is a bad thing, I would insist that you at least take me out to dinner first." Despite her catty and playful tone her left hand never left her pistol as her eyes scanned the room, making Harry feel slightly bad for making her so tense.

" _Sorry for making you so tense, but having seen what you do to the others I don't want to take any chances that you might decide to try and dissect me as well."_ It was a partial truth, one that Hermione had seen through the moment he had finished warding one of the bunk beds to serve as his sleeping area, but he couldn't really just come out and say that he didn't want to form attachments to people that he knew could well die any day in this invasion.

For now though Harry wanted to remain the invisible watcher, aiding and protecting from the shadows, then once this was over he could integrate himself somewhere nice and quiet and enjoy being anonymous for a while. Having finished his initial glance over the Sectoid autopsy report, which used at least a dozen words on the first page that Harry didn't understand, Harry attached his new note to the folder and switched both of them with the next folder down on the pile.

Her laugh caught him off guard as she read the new note, the small smile present on her face when he focused back to her bringing back painful memories of Ginny, who had a similar smile whenever they were spending time with each other. The Commander put the note down and relaxed in her chair for the first time in the conversation, grabbing the glass of what Harry assumed was whiskey and take a small sip.

"Well at least you realise how much the 'Predator' act is pissing some people off, though I will admit if there are any other aliens that can cloak Dr Vahlen has come up with several lethal and nonlethal responses we can equip to our soldiers thanks to your presence. If it weren't for the fact that Corporal Goto and the others on Skyhammer team vouch for you saving them from a couple of tights spots against the other aliens, I would have considered letting her try some on you, just to make sure they work of course..." He couldn't help but chuckle at her obviously joke threat, the noise causing her to turn in his direction with a start even as he cut the noise off as fast as he could.

"I could try and find you now I know where you are..." Harry could see the desire to do so burning in her eyes, obviously as much as she enjoyed their little game she wanted answers more, but then she sighed as an alarm went off signalling something was happening in the control room.

"I'd almost think that you managed to arrange that on purpose, but if you did then that would be far worse for us, there are far worse things you could do than using such an ability just to avoid me possibly finding you... Can I count on your help again?" Harry nodded, before remembering that she couldn't see him, though it seemed she took his silence as an affirmative regardless and turned to go out the door.

Now all he had to do was decide if he wanted to wear the armour he had 'borrowed' or not...

!"£$%^&*()_+

"Man down, they're tearing us apart out her... urgh!" The voice of the Australian army sergeant, that had been one of the few remaining survivors of the containment teams sent by the conventional army, cut off as he was blasted backwards by a bolt of plasma.

Erin would have winced at the blood splatter that caught her in the face, but considering she had just tourniqueted and cauterised Ji's stump of a leg and unsuccessfully tried to keep Jonathan from bleeding out, she more that a little freaked out as it was. Grabbing her rifle and slamming a new ammo clip in place, Erin shifted towards the window where the sergeant had been stood moments before, her eyes catching the shifting movement of a tall spindly figure towards their building a moment later.

"Target eliminated!" Her call was probably a little pre-emptive, but she felt a deep satisfaction a moment later as a burst of rounds caught the 'man' in the chest and sent him to the ground, his body shivering and then rupturing into a cloud of poison gas moments later.

"Skyhammer, I need a sitrep, what is going on down there?" Looking over to where Kumiko was currently crouched and covering the stairs, Erin decided that she didn't look like she was going to answer anytime soon, and a quick scan of the parkland outside didn't seem to show any new targets for her to worry about right now.

"Central, we've got two men down and only three survivors of the containment team left, this was almost certainly a trap for us. We've killed over a dozen sectoids, which would be challenging enough given their superior weaponry, but there are two new types of aliens in the attack as well. If it weren't for IT drawing most of those mutt like things away..." The end of her sentence, which would probably have been quite unprofessional and demoralising for the few remaining Auzzie's who were probably listening in, didn't need to be stated for it to be understood at the base.

"Raven-1 is on it's way to provide fire support and Sabre team are just finishing their mission in Mumbai and then will be on their way, you just need to hold on for a while longer Skyhammer..." Easy for him to say, Erin thought as she spotted several more dark shapes shifting forwards through the remnants of the bushes and trees, ducking as one of them unleashed a torrent of plasma at her position. Then thankfully the Commander came on the line, with a little bit of good news.

"Skyhammer, I have called some favours in with the Australian government and they have tasked a recon drone to your position, I am working to see if I can get any other suitable assets to you faster than Sabre team can but most conventional troops would get torn apart as soon as they've arrived. We are synchronising the feed with your huds now, any idea where IT has disappeared off to?" Looking over to what remained of the local skatepark on the other side of the park, where a firestorm was currently raging and threatening to expand to the nearby woods, Erin did her best not to put any annoyance in her tone as she poured fire down onto the approaching aliens.

"Trust me Commander, whatever IT is, it is having a better time of things than we are..." As if to reinforce her point another of the soldier went down, face melted to the bone from a plasma round, one of the remaining two soldiers losing it and unleashing a spray of bullets which had almost no chance of actually hitting anything.

"Get your head down soldier!" Kumiko's call didn't have any effect, and Erin knew if she didn't do something then they would be down another member.

Breaking cover, in what she knew was a foolish move, Erin tackled the soldier to the ground as a plasma round skimmed her arm. Ignoring the pain as best she could, which given her armour was now melting into her arm was not an easy thing to do, she sat up and double tapped the sectoid who had taken the shot.

"I am counting 7... No six contacts left Skyhammer, I think our friend is helping out given one of the contacts just exploded. HUD sync is completing... Now." The world view through her helmet shift and Erin could appreciate the extent of X-Com's technological advantage over the normal world military forces, this augmented reality helping pierce the darkness and highlight their enemies in a way normal tech just couldn't manage.

"We should have this shit every mission..." Kumiko's comment mirrored Erin's own even as she caught sight of another one of the 'thin men' spontaneously separate into four chunks in one of the messiest explosions Erin had ever seen.

"Five vs three soldiers and a mystery Mr Invisible, shouldn't be too bad right?" Kumiko's attempt to make light of the situation fell on deaf ears, the dead and dying around them sucking any kind of positive energy from the atmosphere.

Though, as Erin stood and pulled off a headshot against the nearest Sectoid she had seen stand up and ready to fire, she couldn't help but hope that this wasn't going to be the outcome of every mission in the fight to repel the aliens...

!"£$%^&*()_+

It was over, something that Kumiko could only be thankful for as she looked at the body bag that held Jonathan on the seating on the other side of the Skyranger, whilst it was a painful loss to the team and to her as their leader it could have been a lot worse. Looking over to where Erin was fitfully shifting in her sleep, Kumiko knew it had been sheer luck that the young soldier hadn't ended up in a body bag as well, though the same could be said of any of the survivors.

After the thin man exploded it had been relatively easy to mop the remaining aliens up, given that they seemed to be panicking more about IT than X-Com, despite the fact that IT seemed to do nothing else after that point. Despite the fact that IT was almost certainly an alien, Kumiko couldn't help but feel more than slightly concerned about the lack of signs from IT since they had boarded the Skyranger to make the return trip or whilst they were cleaning up the ambush site.

The new types of alien were more disturbing than the Sectoids have been, though the very humanoid aliens concerned Kumiko more than the savage dog like things that seemed to try and chase...

*Thud*

The sudden noise from her left made Kumiko jump, though she seemed to be the only one who noticed the sound as Erin was still sleeping.

"Hello?" Assuming that it might have been IT moving around or something, Kumiko stood up and moved in that direction, given the noise of the aircraft and IT's subtleness thus far such a loud sound almost definitely meant something was wrong.

After a couple of minutes moving around the cargo bay Kumiko's foot suddenly made contact with something solid, which shouldn't have happened in the middle of the open floor, and a low pained groan made her even more nervous as she reached down to investigate. To her surprise her first touch was that of soft cloth, almost silky in fact, and now that she had a hold of it she could actually see whatever it was shifting and shimmering slightly from her touch.

"Central, I think there is something wrong with IT, I heard a noise that sounded like something collapsing to the floor and went to investigate. No response or attempt to avoid me has been taken, it seems that IT's cloaking device is just that... a cloak." Kumiko would have thought that an 'invisibility cloak' was a laughable piece of nonsense only weeks ago, but having had little grey men tear apart not one but 2 of her squads now, she was a lot more open to the idea of things from mythology being real.

"Get the cloak off and check our invisible friend Sergeant, given the lengths it has gone to remain hidden over the last week and a half, the fact you have managed to find it means something is definitely wrong..." Kumiko agreed, though she still palmed her pistol into her off hand just in case IT reacted badly, grasping the cloak and pulling it towards her in a single fluid motion.

"Central... it looks like IT has been poisoned, probably by one of those new aliens we were ambushed with... Erin!" Kumiko's shout jolted both Erin and Ji into consciousness, the amputated man so drugged up he was barely able to raise his head in confused delirium, but Erin was awake and on her feet in an instant, pistol ready and held in a rock solid grip as she took in her surroundings.

"Sergeant... Who the hell is that? And where the fuck is your arm?" Looking down, at the surprisingly small and very **human** man lying in front of her, Kumiko then glanced to see that the cloak now around her arm seemed to work even away from whoever this was before remembering why she had shouted Erin.

"Erin, get me a medipack from the Skyranger's supplies, I will explain later!" With the younger woman nodding and rushing over to where the medical supplies were kept, Kumiko did her best to work out how she was going to report this one in.

"Central, you know that containment facility you were working on, you better get that ready soon... Because you are not going to believe this."

 **A/N: And so comes my first set of real divergences from X-Com, with both the aliens and X-Com acting in very different ways to the game, with the aliens deliberately setting a trap to 'test' X-Com's ability to adapt as well as a new alien to sniff out Harry.**

 **My assumption in the game is that the ethereal's are testing humanity, like they seem to have tested all the other races they now utilise as their minions. The aliens we have seen will only make up a small modicum of the possible races they have tested and from a strategic point of view they would just utilise the ones that provide the greatest challenge to the next set of applicants.**

 **One of the things that could have been better utilised in X-Com are passive combat equipment such as drones or even air support, given how serious the situation becomes very quickly (if you do the Zhang missions quickly enough a battleship that size appearing over China very much ruins any facade of keeping the alien invasion quiet), utilising terrestrial forces to support your X-Com teams in return for equipment or alien materials would have been a very interesting way to go.**

 **And Harry isn't going to be a Deus Ex Machina, despite his magic he is biologically still human, and poison can do wonderful things to people even if you assume that the basilisk venom/phoenix tear combo in his veins does provide some level of immunity. So when Harry wakes up, he is going to find himself in a rather interesting position to say the least!**


	4. First Meetings are key

Harry woke to his entire body feeling like it had been on fire, which was worryingly familiar to the cruciatus curse, the feeling very quickly banishing the typical drowsiness that usually plagued him when he woke up. Sitting up, Harry found himself in a very concerning position, primarily because he didn't recognise his surroundings at all.

"Good, you are avake..." The voice of Dr Vahlen made Harry freeze in place as two important points became very clear to him, first that he was inside what looked like a very strange prison cell with so much white that it reminded him of a mental asylum, and given that Dr Vahlen was blatantly staring at him as she spoke reinforced the lack of comforting protection that his invisibility cloak provided him.

"You were poisoned by one of the new aliens we encountered on the last mission, designated 'Thin Men' given the extensive genetic modification to look like us they have undertaken, though given your own scans I cannot help but wonder if you are some sort of advanced prototype..." Harry's earlier feeling that Dr Vahlen was dangerous was going off in his head far louder now, her no nonsense attitude and calculating demeanour merely a front as she began what he recognised as a rather traditional approach to interrogation, aimed at keeping him on the back foot and presenting him with a stream of information that X-Com knew to see how he would react.

Still, this wasn't Harry's first interrogation, even if he was without the advantage of his cloak or wand. Standing up as his eyes scanned his cell, Harry was impressed at it's construction, he couldn't detect a single structural weakness or even the door that must be present for him to have ended up in here. The fact that he wasn't bound or currently being threatened with a gun meant that the Commander had probably insisted that they couldn't go too far with their questioning, which meant that remaining silent not only bought him time to think but also to see if it could provoke them into making a mistake or two.

"Please, we know that you can speak, Sergeant Goto's testimony is reinforced by the fact that you can also write all of those annoying notes that you leave around the place. If you remain silent I will need to utilise less... pleasant methods of extracting the required information regarding what you are." It was at this point that Harry realised he had made a mistake in his earlier assessment of the situation, whilst he wasn't bound there wasn't anywhere he could really go, and Dr Vahlen was the only person present in the room.

If the Commander had been the one to order him kept unharmed, than if his instincts were right Dr Vahlen wasn't above defying such orders in order to get the information she wanted, so the threat of unsavoury treatment was probably not a bluff as he first thought. Either that, or it was a bluff that was thought out entirely with the idea that he was intelligent enough to realise the first level of the play, either idea did not bode well for him.

"Okay, Okay, let's not doing anything rash Dr Vahlen." Holding his hands up in what he hoped she would interpret as a pacifying gesture, Harry channeled his magic through the resurrection stone that was still on his ring finger, utilising one of the few actual powers that came with becoming the 'master of death'.

The three artifacts were linked through an archaic magic that Harry had found no reference of regardless of where he looked, even Salazar's notes had made no mention of an enchantment that would allow their owner to detect where his belongings were, but it meant that he could determine roughly where both the elder wand and the invisibility cloak were. It meant that when Dr Vahlen smirked and raised her left hand to show the wand he wasn't overly surprised, his face remaining impassive as she twirled it skillfully through her fingers.

"So you decide to speak, or is this merely another one of your games? I wouldn't try any of your powers, if you do the consequences will be quite distasteful..." Harry actually smirked at this, feeling a little confident for the first time in this encounter as he worked out what Dr Vahlen's plan was and the error she had made.

"My powers? I think you have no idea what my powers are Dr Vahlen, if you did you wouldn't have been foolish enough to send someone into this cell under MY cloak..." The serious look on Vahlen's face barely shifted but Harry could tell he had caught her a little flat footed, her grip on the elder wand tightening to the point that her knuckles were whitened along it's shaft as he continued speaking, trying to make it clear that whilst he had seen through their plan he wasn't going to be a threat unless they made him one.

"But I would like to think that after my efforts over the last few weeks I have proven that I am no friend of these aliens and that you could use my help, which I imagine is why you healed me rather than just letting me die and dissecting me like you do to the sectoids. Thank you for that by the way." His thanks seemed to go right over Dr Vahlen's head as she kept her steely gaze firmly on him, before a third voice made both of them break eye contact for the first time since he stood up.

"Your welcome, though perhaps you understand our reluctance to let you go again so soon given how hard it has been too pin you down, we wouldn't want you running off again without a chance to talk first." The Commander was stood in a relaxed but disapproving pose, making Harry think he had been right with his initial analysis of Dr Vahlen's actions, though she was obviously trying not to let him realise that it hadn't been the plan all along.

"If I hadn't seen one of those 'Thin men' up close I would have been a little bit more paranoid about your reasons, but honestly you guys still feel the need to hold me at gunpoint? If it weren't for the fact that this whole invasion problem isn't going to go away I would be offended and disappear for a while, but as it is I think you guys need all the help you can get." Probably a little sassy, but given the stakes Harry wanted to be negotiating from a position of strength if he was going to end up helping these guys out.

"Oh really, somehow I don't see you disappearing on us from inside that cell without us letting you..." Vahlen had decided to call his bluff as she probably saw it, but this was hardly the first time Harry had been disarmed and trapped, these guys weren't even fellow magicals so they wouldn't be prepared in the slightest.

Wandless apparition was not an easy skill to master, it took significantly more power and concentration without utilising a focus, but Harry had always been one to practice such skills given how fucked up his school years had been. In an instant he was next to Dr Vahlen, grabbing the elder wand from her hand and then apparating away as the woman drew a pistol with her free hand and with remarkable skill.

"Put the gun away Dr, we will be having words later about you antagonising aliens of unknown power, as well as getting one of my men involved in this insane strategy of yours." The Commander seemed unperturbed at Harry's appearance by her side, probably understanding his logic of it being the area he was most likely to get shot at whilst stood there.

"Understood Commander, but I felt it pertinent to ascertain IT's abilities to escape our containment facilities before we try and capture any other aliens. Whilst this one seems relatively benign for whatever reason, our other targets will be unlikely to be so peaceful." Huh, well when put like that Harry could understand Vahlen's actions a bit more, but he still resented the alien accusation.

"Well, if you had just asked..." Harry cut off as the Commander shot him a look that somehow conveyed that she wanted to end this argument now as they had bigger things to talk about. "But I suppose given my caution I wasn't the easiest to trust in the first place. Now, given that I can't just act from the shadows anymore I should probably introduce myself? You might as well gather your group leaders Commander, I only want to do this once..."

It was the right amount of acknowledgement of her look and unspoken request, mixed with a no nonsense authoritative stance that made it clear that he wasn't going to be bossed around. That is what he hoped at any rate, even as he used the elder wand and the stone to summon the cloak directly to him, leaving a suddenly awkward looking Delta-3 stood in the middle of the containment unit.

"Got a bit of a mouth on you I see, I can deal with that I suppose. Though I suppose if we are going to be open with each other, I will tell you that if you had tried anything aggressive against us..." The Commander raised her right hand to reveal what looked like a... Harry froze before she moved across and grabbed something from the back of his neck with the kind of amused ease that he was always terrified to see in one of his opponents.

"Though small, I can assure you that this little baby would have at best put you out for the count, at worst it would probably have put you in the morgue. We haven't done more than some basic tests on this piece of tech yet..." With a not entirely faked shudder at the Commander's predatory grin, Harry pointed to her a little disbelievingly.

"You... What is it with you X-Com women and trying to compete in intimidating me?" To his surprise both Dr Vahlen and the Commander giggled at this, neither of them taking the dig for what it was, in fact the Commander seemed almost pleased at the idea of intimidating him.

"You know, if it weren't for the fact that you can teleport, your reaction then would have made me question whether you are in fact an alien or not..." Harry merely gave a grin, his mind already working in overtime.

The question was, as always, how much of his own personal skills and powers did he reveal at this point? Given his past experience with spies and traitors, Harry was definitely not going to risk a potential leak ruining any advantages he had in this conflict, given the situation it was merely sensible to withhold some information. The question was merely how much? At times like this Harry really wished Hermione was actually still with him, he could hardly sneak off to go talk to her portrait before the meeting...

"Oh, I think what I am is going to surprise you Commander, and that is with you experience with little green men taken into account. Now, do you want my weapon or do you trust me not to do anything as we walk through the base?" The offer seemed to surprise her before she took a second glance at his wand, before she shook her head.

"You've already proved you don't need it to utilise your powers, which makes me even more curious as to what it might be able to do, all our scans identified it as mere stick..." As they walked out of the door Harry was surprised to find Dr Vahlen catching up to them to walk on his other side, former hostility gone in place of a burning curiosity that once again reminded him of Hermione.

"Yes, and that teleporting is very interesting, I cannot wait to get the readings from the scanners I had set up. I assume this is why you have been so difficult for us to correctly track through the base? We would have your position on one side of the base and then you would suddenly register on the other without any noticeable path of transportation..." Harry nodded even as he mentally shuddered, if Hermione and Vahlen ever got to talking to each other...

Terrifying indeed, better add that to the mental checklist of things to avoid...

!"£$%^&*()_+

It was difficult to decide if she was more or less disappointed at the revelation that their invisible friend had been so humanoid in shape, Kate had to admit she had let her imagination run a little wild during their encounters and some of her imagined aliens had been brilliantly horrifying to conceive, though the fact he would be able to accompany their teams without much in the way of sticking out was a positive as well.

"Despite your claims to be a human, and from another dimension of all things, that does not explain the differences in your body's chemistry and physiology. Nor does it explain how you can teleport, unless you are saying that you shifting between dimensions every time you do that..." It also didn't explain how he could make a Thin Man explode or impale a Sectoid with a 3 metre long metal beam at 30 yards given his small and rather unimpressive stature, but Kate knew that adding those things would definitely be overstressing the point at this stage...

"Well, I was trying to ease you into this...Wait, so you guys still think I am an alien? Surely if I was I would have tried to come up with something a little bit more mainstream as a backstory?" To the man's, he called himself Harry but Kate wasn't quite at the stage of first names just yet, credit he seemed to accept their cynicism for what it was and tried to logic counter their arguments without too much belligerence.

"He has a point, he could have claimed alien experimentation before escaping with that cloak that he managed to steal from their supplies. Given my own theories regarding the aliens testing us for something, subtle 'pre-contact' experimentation would make sense even if the thought of potential spies amongst us terrifies me." Dr Shen's point made the man nod in gratitude to the elderly engineer, obviously pleased that someone was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt at least.

"True enough, but that is getting off topic, and I don't need you and Dr Vahlen arguing again whilst our guest is trying to enlighten us on his past." Kate spoke up to prevent the almost inevitable conflict between Vahlen and Shen, though given the man's nodding he certainly seemed to be in agreement with Shen's hypothesis.

"Well, I suppose it is probably easier for me to show you first and then explain afterwards..." With an uncertainty that seemed at odds with what she had seen of the man thus far, he drew the stick from before and gestured at the glass of water in front of him, a request that had seemed strange up until this point as he hadn't drank a drop.

To her surprise the water shifted and flickered, morphing from it's resting position up into the shape of a rose, before solidifying into ice a moment later. The entire room was silent even as the man muttered something under his breath and pointed at the rose a couple of times, the rose lifting out of the cup and floating over to Kumiko.

"Apologies for it being a rose, but I learnt this particular spell from a friend of mine who seemed to think he was something of a dating god. It has temperature control charms on it that should mean it will not melt for a long, long time, I thought given your admittedly grizzly Sectoid skull trophy you might want another trophy to commemorate your first encounter with a wizard..." Kate had to admit that it was certainly a disarming touch for the man to add to his explanation, her mind acknowledging the psychological plus points of such a demonstration before it caught up to her what he had said at the end of his sentence.

"Incredible, manipulation of matter and energy on such a scale..." Dr Vahlen didn't seem overly shocked, but then again neither did Shen, Enriquez or Bradford now Kate was paying attention.

She supposed that given she had told them all about his teleportation ability and they had seen his actions on the battlefield such a proclamation wasn't the jaw dropper the man seemed to think he would get.

"Huh, well I definitely imagined a bit more of a reaction than that to be honest, though I suppose I should clarify to Dr Vahlen that the rose... That's nothing." It was clear that Harry was enjoying the role of omniscient performer, so Kate enjoyed the chance to upset his attempts at projecting a mysterious aura.

"As much as you obviously wish to wow us with your revelations, I cannot have my leadership team distracted for an entire afternoon, especially given the uncertainty of our enemies next move. So if you could summarise your most prevalent skills now, then you and I can discuss your history in a more private setting..." Her inferred order seemed to surprise Harry, but she also saw some respect in the glance he cast at her before speaking once more, obviously her intention to keep as much of his personal information classified as possible.

"Sure, though how about a live combat demonstration? One of your teams... Actually make that two of your teams, wouldn't want it to be over too quickly, no offence but I will almost certainly run rings around you guys..." The idea was appealing even if it was just for the opportunity to wipe the self-confident smirk that had blossomed on Harry's face, but Kate knew that there was something that would put a pin in the plan before it even began.

"Unfortunately, as you are no doubt aware from your wanderings that we don't exactly have much in the way of a live combat training area, space is at a premium down here and whilst the Council has been generous in its funding we don't exactly have cash lying around to expand to another base." It was true, things like research facilities and equipment took far greater priority than a combat training area, even if it would have been good for the rookies to practice in.

"Oh, don't worry about that, as long as you don't mind giving up half your barracks then I can make you one hell of an arena..." Considering they only had 20 soldiers and the same number of engineers and scientists at the moment Kate could live with that, though Harry's offer had her even more intrigued now.

"Really? Do you want Dr Shen's assistance and his engineers in whatever you have planned?" It looked like Harry was going to reflexively refuse for a moment before shrugging and beckoning to Dr Shen.

"How about the three of us go and discuss what I have planned and then Dr Shen can decide if he thinks he can assist me. To be honest trying to mix magic and muggle engineering is an entirely new concept for me, so I will be more than open to ideas." To Kate's surprise Dr Vahlen's voice interrupted whilst the soldiers stood, obviously understanding their dismissal for what it was, the German doctor surprisingly respectful given her usual abrupt and upfront manner.

"If you wouldn't mind Commander, I would like to accompany you as well. Whilst Dr Shen will be useful in whatever construction... Sorry Mr... Harry, do you have a rank that we should be referring to you as?" It was a surprisingly subtle and crafty question, given his actions and general paranoia Kate could tell that Harry had been involved quite heavily in conflict in his old world, but not only would this help them determine how structured any training he might have received had been but also whether he was a professional or amateur soldier.

To her surprise Harry seemed to understand some of the subtleties of the question, even as he chuckled bitterly and reached almost reflexively for his right hand, his fingers almost touching the ring on his ring finger before jerking away and bringing him back to the conversation. When he spoke his tone was almost harsh in its inflection, making Kate wonder what memories the question had summoned up.

"The wizarding community on my Earth was very small, I mean it was about a 1:1000 ratio of wizards to normal humans, so we had no real need for a standing military force. Instead I became known for the accolades and titles I acquired during my childhood, Heir of Slytherin, Monster Slayer, Champion of the Tri-wizard..." The list of titles worried Kate, if only because of the particular mention that these were the titles he gained during his childhood, and if wizards were real in his world the monsters he had probably slain were just as bad as the aliens here.

"Commander of the DA, Betrayer of the Blood and Public Enemy No 1. Those are the polite ones, so you can take your pick if you need a moniker for me like you seem to have for Kumiko and Enriquez, though none of those really mean much in this world I suppose..." Kate could tell he was holding something back, but given they had agreed to speak of his history in private she decided instead to break him off from what was obviously a painful trip down memory lane.

"How about we instead call you Ghost for now? Not only will it stop people from asking too many questions when you are out on missions, as it is a common code name for special forces soldiers, but it does also fit the fact you have been sneaking around the facility for the last month without anyone catching a glimpse of you?" That brought a smile to Harry's face as he nodded, before he gestured to the door.

"I like that just fine, now lets go discuss what I have in mind. Give me 2 days and then I can show you what a ghost can really do..." And somehow, Kate got the feeling that her teams were going to get more than a few different lessons when that deadline came around...

 **A/N: Another Chapter! I must admit that I am on fire with this story right now, probably because I am SO excited for X-Com 2. Even if it only delivers half of what I have imagined based on the videos and trailers than it will be my favourite game of the last 3-4 years, if it delivers everything then you guys might not hear from me for quite some time when it comes out.**

 **Speaking of X-Com 2, I want to transition this into the X-Com 2 storyline, which means that X-Com falling happens fairly quickly, but I want to take into account Harry's impact in a meaningful way to extending the X-Com's life as well. This means I am in a bit of a conundrum.**

 **Do I a) Cause Harry's appearance and abilities to make the aliens more cautious in their approach as they try to find out more about this new assailant? In addition I have several ideas that Harry/Hermione can use quite quickly to make the X-Com forces more capable of actually combating the aliens better, as well as things Shen and Vahlen can develop alongside them that utilise magic. These would then help with X-Com resisting the initial X-Com Base Assault (which is what I assume is where the Commander is captured based on footage), as well as helping X-Com as a whole escape from what would be a sustained assault and become a more active resistance movement as the Alien arrival begins in full force.**

 **Or Do I b) It takes a little time for the true understanding of Harry's powers to become clear to the Ethereals, about the time of the Alien base assault, but when they realise what is going on they accelerate their plans and strike full force at X-Com with considerably more of their considerable arsenal. This has the potential of being a shorter transition into X-Com 2 as well as a more realistic reaction from the aliens who have been testing humans for psionic powers.**

 **What do we think people? Opinions will help me work out how to shape this story so that it will actually keep moving at it's current pace, so review everyone!**


	5. The Ghost's playground

The imposing black granite walls had been erected by the end of the first night after Ghost's rather surprising challenge, the fact that the erection of the barrier had not disturbed any of their sleep was more than slightly disturbing to Kumiko given how edgy she had been after her first two alien engagements. Shen and the engineers were keeping quiet about what was going on inside, though given the excited mutterings they shared when they thought no one else was nearby whatever it was could be considered as interesting scientifically as the aliens they were fighting against.

Looking at her squad, which contained Erin and two new rookies who had been part of the reserves before the shit hit the fan, Kumiko knew that whilst they were light on alien fighting experience compared to Sabre squad the rookies were still experienced combatants. Hans Pieters had been a member of the German Kommando's before he had joined up with X-Com just before first contact, whilst Alessandra Rossi was a highly decorated member of the Italian armed forces.

"Right Skyhammer, let's go show this little magician what real soldiers can do!" Hans thumped his chest in approval whilst Alessandra checked her modified assault rifle for the third time that morning, their faces hidden under the full face masks both teams were wearing due to the rubber bullets they would be using in this exercise.

Erin didn't seem as enthusiastic as the other two, but given she had seen what the man in question could do in combat Kumiko wasn't overly surprised, she was just glad Ghost had made it clear from the start he would not be using some of the more dangerous 'spells' in his arsenal. Though all that meant was they had no idea what to expect from their soon to be opponent, given that every result of his magic that they had seen in the field had been lethal and destructive in equal measure.

"Glad to see you are enthused for this little demonstration Skyhammer, though you are a couple of minutes behind Sabre team, they are already inside." The minor joking rebuke from the Commander didn't bother Kumiko, despite not being here first they were still at least 10 minutes early for the arranged training session, which would allow them to get an idea of what sort of training area the space had been turned into.

"Ready when you are Commander." Access through the five metre high steel doors was restricted to key engineers, Shen and the Commander, utilising fingerprint and retinal scans to ensure that even if the Council visited they could only enter the training room with permission.

It was probably a little excessive but given they had already seen alien mind control at work the risk of outsiders was far greater than it might have been against a terrestrial foe. The commander completed the scans with practiced ease, the smaller door that made up part of the left hand door opening with a hiss a moment later, the Commander grasping it and pulling it open with one hand despite it looking almost half a foot thick.

"Welcome to the garden of Eden, though I must warn you, there is a rather dangerous snake in there waiting for us." As she stepped forward to enter, Kumiko couldn't hold back the sharp intake of breath as she took in what had previously been a bare 40 metre squared area of barracks, even with the seemingly real trees blocking her view she could tell it was at least half again that size if not more.

"Impossible..." Alessandra's breathless utterance was followed by a distinctive chuckle from in front of them to their left, Ghost stepping from where he seemed to have been waiting for them against a tree and bowing a little mockingly.

"That word has been used to describe me more than I should be comfortable with, but I am glad to see you like the decor." It was a front, that much Kumiko could tell as Ghost continued his cocky persona before leading them through the woods to a very life-like ruin of a stone walled country cottage, an attempt to hide something behind the false veneer that was his confident smirk.

"This will be your team's starting point, Sabre team will also deploy here whilst I deploy... well somewhere else." Okay, maybe not entirely faked confidence as she had first thought as he gestured around with the kind of uncaring mysteriousness that came with being a teacher keeping children in suspense.

"Any other rules Commander?" Looking round Kumiko was surprised to find the commander no longer stood with them, only for her voice to rumble through the area a moment later making it clear that she could hear them still wherever she was.

"No melee weapons or lethal armaments, so any pistols you have are to remain in the holsters. Ghost will only be able to utilise his teleportation three times and only within eyesight of where he is when he activates it, otherwise he really will run rings around you. You will win if the armour that Ghost is wearing registers a maim or kill shot from your weapons, whilst he wins if he can incapacitate both squads before the time limit of 15 minutes is up. This will act as a simulation of you encountering an alien of unknown powers and trying to stop it escaping, so no turtling up and trying to out camp each other here people." No chance of that happening, all Ghost would have to do is teleport into the middle of them and it would be all over for them given what she had seen happen to the aliens.

"See you all on the other side..." And with that Ghost was gone, leaving the two teams stood a little flat footed in the ruined cottage.

"First team to nail him gets free drinks at the bar tonight..." Given the secrecy of their location and the efforts the logistical teams went to keep the base a secret, drinks were by no means cheap and usually only available if a successful team dropped off for drinks somewhere on their way back from a mission, a practice the Commander overlooked as long as they stocked the communal bar rather than kept it to themselves.

Enriquez's declaration meant that losing had suddenly taken on a physical loss to accompany the loss of pride and standing against the now admittedly senior team, who had been out on two extra missions whilst Kumiko and Erin were integrating their new team. Despite this, Kumiko wanted to work with the other team rather than set up a competition, after all the only thing worse than losing to Sabre team would be...

"And when you fail, you can all pitch in to buying me my new wardrobe..." The voice in her ear would have freaked her out, and she saw the others spin round with weapons raised meaning it hadn't just been her, but Ghost had already used this technique on her a couple of times over the last few days.

After the initial shock and indignation she had seen the funny side, especially when he started providing sarcastic and very humorous comments when Sabre team had been boasting in the canteen about their successful missions. But in this case it worked very well in ramping everyone's paranoia up to 11, only her and Erin remaining relatively relaxed as the Commander's voice came over the speaker system.

"And the mission begins now..." As Sabre team took off to their right without a word, Kumiko held her hand up to stop any of her team either following or heading off on their own.

If they couldn't work together, then perhaps she could utilise the other team's hurried actions to her advantage. Gesturing to the very authentically scorched table before pointing Alessandra to stand watch, Kumiko brought out the four little metal objects that Shen had provided them the day before. setting them up roughly equidistant from each other, Kumiko pressed the button on the side of her armour, an electrical jolt jumping between the four of them before a holographic screen appeared between them.

Not only did it give the team a 'drone's eye' view of the area through what Kumiko could only assume was a camera in the ceiling, but after a couple of moments she was able to split the screen between that image and the four camera's in team Sabre's HUD's.

"Good work Skyhammer... Looks like Ghost is making his move." The Commander's voice came over their comms this time, obviously she didn't want to give the game away to Sabre team, even as the thermal imaging provided from the ceiling camera suddenly lit up with half a dozen extra heat signatures that definitely hadn't been there moments before.

"What the... Contacts left, multiple contacts!" The cry of Grace, Sabre team's cheery heavy weapon's specialist, prompted Sabre team to all turn left as a pack of wolves came charging out of the low foliage towards them.

"Well, there goes our number advantage..." Hans' muttering brought an ironic smile to Kumiko's face even as Sabre team opened up, taking down most of the wolves before they could get close, though their assault specialist Fahid was forced to the ground by the last one, though the sounds of the beast's neck snapping a few seconds later showed he wasn't out...

"Sabre 2 KIA, if that wolf hadn't been deliberately holding back it would have torn your face off." Whilst it was good to hear that Ghost was managing to even make his vicious creations hold back from causing any major damage to them, the Commander's precise and piercing appraisal meant that she had _known_ what Ghost was going to do, which meant that Ghost had predicted what Sabre team would do in advance...

"Skyhammer, we need to move..." Hans seemed to understand her logic, if Sabre team's actions had been predicted there was the risk theirs had been as well, meaning they probably only had a few minutes at best before Ghost was done with Sabre team before he came gunning for them.

Moving from the ruins after deactivating her map, Kumiko saw a rise off to their left, though she immediately dismissed it as it looked too advantageous. Which meant she had no idea what was happening with Sabre team other than the sounds of gunfire and the Commander's announcements.

"Sabre 3 KIA, Ghost originally wanted to put spikes in their until I told him that was too far..."

"Sabre 4 KIA, that spell could just have easily been a plasma round." Deciding to set back up so she could try and get the camera to do a trap sweep in the local area before moving to try their luck against the man himself, Kumiko heard rather than saw the fireworks that slammed into the middle of the ruined cottage a moment later.

Whilst it meant she had been right about getting them out of there, Kumiko couldn't help but wonder if she was now going to pay for her earlier overconfidence, her's and Sabre team's...

!"£$%^&*()_

It had been... well Jane had several expletives that could fit the general description of what Harry had done to her two top squads in his new training area, but for the most part she was prepared to put it down to home field advantage and inside knowledge of how her team's worked. Though if in a week's time when she had them do this again the results remained the same... She would be having words.

"What do you think of them?" Her question was directed at the source of her current frustration, currently gulping down a thermos of tea like he was a man dying of thirst.

"Mmm? Oh sorry Commander." He paused as she raised her hand, this return to formality by him annoyed her more than she thought it would, though whether or not this was because she missed the brutal honesty she had gotten from him before his big reveal she wasn't sure.

"Right, Jane... To be honest they are better than I expected, especially those two newbies on Kumiko's team." That made her raise an eyebrow, which he obviously caught given he flicked his head to the large screen in the 'command room' that contained the recordings of the team's HUD's, despite his initial uncertainty he had caught on to the basics behind computers relatively quickly.

"I wasn't actually expecting Kumiko to catch onto me so quickly, probably guessed it after you keyed them in on the fact we had discussed what I was going to do beforehand." It certainly had been a humbling experience to see Harry predict roughly what each team would do the day before the test, and it was something he had merely shaken his head at when she asked him how he was so sure.

"How did you know that Sabre would go out on their own after you? And more importantly, how did you know Skyhammer wouldn't run to assist them when you started attacking?" Just because he had failed to answer her before didn't mean she was going to let him off so easily now though.

"You really want to know?" At her nod Harry spun his hand round to rewind the footage back to the start of the exercise, waiting until his heat dot had disappeared from view before pausing the screen and pointing at it.

"Tell me what you see and what you can deduce about the two teams at this moment, though actually anything you can drag up from the point I issued my little challenge will probably suffice as well." Looking over the images Jane spent several moments winding the footage back and forth over the ten to fifteen seconds before everyone suddenly tensed up and Sabre team moved off.

"Sabre team are... confident? Almost cocky I suppose given they moved off without any hint of a plan or formation? Whilst Skyhammer are cautious, almost intimidated by the time you start, definitely forming a defensive position even before Kumiko decides to assess how you fought Sabre team." It was weird, for a boy easily half a decade younger than her to be teaching her how he assesses his opponents, but it was clear that he was speaking from experience as he started gesturing at the large screen.

"Let's just say the team leaders in this exercise are tactically very much like two of my closest mentors on my old world. Sabre team were always going to try and take me out quickly, despite the fact that they knew I had several major advantages their hope was to tactically take me off guard and put me on the back foot. Hence they were easy to anticipate and counter." Jane chuckled as she imagined Enriquez' reaction to that piece of tactical feedback.

"Kumiko and Erin have seen what I can do though, and even with my promise to hold back on my more... explosive spells they were always going to take this very seriously, which to me meant either trying to team up with Sabre or hunkering down to use Sabre as an assessment run to see how I would act. I will admit, had they teamed up with Sabre I probably would have been hard pressed to take them all down without resorting to more... ungentlemanly measures." What those would include Jane was definitely too afraid to ask, though it did prompt a question that she had been wondering since he had finished mopping up Skyhammer.

"But if you are this good whilst holding back, why are you so convinced that you are not ready to go out into the field yet?" To her surprise the question was not ignored or deflected, something he had been very unsubtle in doing regarding anything remotely personal asked of him, instead reaching into his pocket for something.

"For exactly the same reason that I am not going to actually follow through with making Skyhammer pay for any of my new apparel, though Sabre don't get off that easily. We haven't seen anything of what these aliens are capable of yet, nor do we even come close to understanding what it is they hope to achieve by abducting people and assaulting Earth so violently. I am only human, so all it takes is one of those plasma rounds for you to lose every potential advantage I could give you. Hell, a poorly timed car exploding would be my most likely but least cool chance of dying in the field at the moment." Finding whatever it was he was looking for, Harry placed it on the table before turning to head to the door.

"I will be more use here with Shen and Vahlen for now, once we do some more work on how to mix magic and your technology the potential advancements will level the playing field considerably, especially if we can find a way to actually utilise that Meld stuff Moira seems so excited about since Sabre team brought some back." It was a good point even if it did rob her of a valuable field asset for the time being, though looking at what could only be a rubber bullet her teams had been using which looked like it had slammed into a brick wall at close range, Jane couldn't understand the significance.

"Moira, is it? And yet it still takes me telling you off to refer to me as an equal? If it weren't for the fact I am more confused over this bullet I would be hurt..." Despite her joking tone Jane did find it annoying that the older woman had managed to get along better with Harry than she did at the moment, especially given the two's rather icy first official meeting.

"Sorry Jane, but that woman scares me to a whole new level when she is angry, that and given how ruthless she has shown herself capable of being, let's just say with you it's me trying to break a habit, with her it is me trying to stay in one piece. And the bullet?" He paused at the door to the control room, which was hidden so well as part of the training area's outer structure that she hadn't even seen it until he pointed out to her, before flicking his wand to activate the screens again, this time reviewing the moment he appeared amongst the last three members of Skyhammer to take them out quickly.

"Let's just say that the new girl is one hell of a shot and leave it at that..." Watching Alessandra's screen as she flipped into the air to avoid the first spell aimed at taking her down and firing off a stream of rounds whilst upside down in mid air in an attempt to take down her attacker, Jane paused the footage as she noticed something arc in front of Harry before he cast another spell and everything Alessandra fell bonelessly to the floor.

Maybe there was hope for the X-Com project yet...

 **A/N: So there we have it, the X-Com training facility is in place and despite the defeat Sabre and Skyhammer suffered Harry didn't come out brilliantly either. Despite the advantage of magic, home turf and pre-determined traps he technically got taken down in the last exchange, if not for shielding which as far as he knows won't stop a plasma round.**

 **But it is a sobering experience, especially for Sabre team who unlike Skyhammer have had it pretty easy in terms of missions thus far (think the other tutorial missions including the Meld one), whilst Skyhammer got dragged into the aliens first ambush attempt on their third mission. It also opens up the opportunity for team training, especially if Harry and Shen can cook up working holograms of enemies to place inside, almost like the X-men's danger room.**

 **So, to clarify, Harry will not become a one man show in trying to stop the aliens. He will go on missions and assist where he can, but he has seen what putting everyone's hopes on person before can do and he won't settle for that twice if he can avoid it. His true advantage here will be in what he can do to boost X-com's fighting prowess and base capabilities, space expansion charms being the obvious one to allow for bigger, better working spaces.**

 **Any ideas are always welcome, as well as any mods or mission ideas people have that will be cool to write.**

 **REVIEW please, I want to know what my readership are thinking either good or bad, that and they can spawn ideas... Great and terrible ideas...**


	6. You've met the brawn

"Harry, let me meet with them, they are going to know you are hiding something from them regardless if you keep this up..." After her third deconstruction of what he would have to learn and experiment on in terms of runes and spells, in order to try and get an idea he and the X-Com dream team had come up with to work, Harry could tell it wasn't just him getting frustrated at the stop/start method of communication between the two groups.

"And when they then start asking me to get portraits of everyone who dies so that they are properly remembered? Or an alien infiltrator manages to get inside the base and destroys you? It isn't exactly like you can defend yourself Hermione." He was grasping at straws and they both knew it, but to her credit Hermione didn't point it out, bluntness was his forte after all.

"Which is why you keep this portrait hidden and create another empty one that I can travel into instead..." Instead she just pointed out the obvious solution that he had somehow missed entirely, with the calm but slightly exasperated confidence that had long since been part and parcel of their interactions.

"You are going to find some way of getting introduced to them regardless of whether I agree or not aren't you?" At Hermione's determined nod, Harry just sighed and gestured around him at the slowly growing mountain of books he had been pulling out of his now unshrunk magical trunks.

"So where in this lot am I going to find out what I need to create another magical portrait? It's not exactly like it came up during classes at Hogwarts... Or at least it didn't in my classes." He tagged the bit on at the end as Hermione looked like she wanted to interrupt, of course she would have found out everything she could have about the process before she arranged for her own portrayal.

"Leave that to me, I know enough off the top of my head to get us what we need, though you will need to ask your new girlfriend for a portrait frame and some canvas for us to work with..." Hermione's teasing had been something he had gotten used to even before he had come over to this new world, several rather stark discussions in the aftermath of Hermione's own death had been enough for Harry to admit his own feelings towards his oldest female friend, and the pair of them had plenty of time to go over the 'what ifs' given his own self imposed isolation from the wizarding world.

"You just want us to put the new portrait up in Kate's room, so that if Merlin forbid something did happen, you could live out your perverted fantasies through us." When he was younger Harry would never have thought of giving such a reply to that type of insinuation, but portrait Hermione was a lot less PC than she had been in life and therefore the new relationship between them had helped him build a little bit of a thick skin to such allegations.

"That would be nice, I could give the Commander some ideas... Or perhaps she could give me some..." Whilst Hermione wasn't anywhere near as perverted as the pair of them joked about, Harry got the feeling from her blushing countenance that he had been closer with his guess of where she would like the new portrait than Hermione would openly admit.

"Anyway, even with the revelation that I am not an alien out to spy on them/kill them in their sleep I highly doubt the Commander is going to be thinking of me romantically whilst there is an honest to god alien invasion going on. This isn't one of your romance movies here Hermione..." He didn't deny that he had some feelings towards Kate, and he was sure that Hermione had noted that, but as he said nothing was going to happen there.

At best, he had jumped from Public Enemy No 1 to 'enemy of my enemy' in terms of X-Com status. Whilst a couple of them, notably Erin and Kate treated him like they would any of the other X-Com members, they were in the very, very small minority. The rest ranged from Kumiko and her team, who treated him wary respect that undoubtedly came from having seen his work in the field, to the members of Sabre team who seemed to treat their defeats to him in training as proof that he was in fact an enemy who was just waiting to strike.

When on base and without a mission, at least one of Sabre team was watching him whenever possible, given how quickly they caught up with him when he apparated it was almost certain they had someone of the security team helping keep tabs on him as well. He didn't mind and certainly couldn't blame them, he was still an unknown quantity in a war that had quickly escalated from the occasional abduction to three large scale attacks in six months, as well as the dozen minor incidents that included his arrival in this world.

"Just, just keep an open mind Harry, that's all I ask." After a moment of giving him her best concerned look, Hermione raised her hand and waved him off towards the edge of the little warded area that served as their current home.

"Now get out there and get me my new portrait, the sooner I can meet everyone the better, and then I can work on you and the Commander." Smiling despite himself, which was probably Hermione's intent entirely, Harry bid her farewell before apparating to the control centre.

The one positive thing about having revealed himself was that everyone was used to his method of transport now, only a couple of them turning in his direction to greet him whilst the others carried on working.

"Ghost, the Commander was looking for you." Central Officer Bradford was in the unofficial third camp regarding him, those who were fascinated by his abilities but fell back upon their training due to their uncertainty regarding him.

"Thanks, where is she?" Bradford gestured towards the small room that led out from command centre, whose door looked like a bank vault but more sturdy in nature, guarded by three of the base security team at all times.

"She's in with the higher ups, but given she was in there before I got on shift an hour ago I imagine she is nearly done, so if you could wait here then we won't have to try and find you again." Ah, Harry had forgotten that he had silenced the warded area so that he could sleep through the regular shift changes and announcements that came with a base of this size.

"Well, interesting that you should mention the communication issue, as that was what I was coming to see the Commander about..."

[]{}#%^*+=

"Despite the initial losses you have suffered, the success you have had against this new and unknown threat is most impressive Commander, our faith in you has been more than justified..." The distorted voice of the Council director, who even she did not know the nationality of let alone the name, somehow managed to relay his approval despite not seemingly changing in tone or inflection.

She had just finished her summary report about the missions and other key points that had shaped X-Com's first six months as an effective task force, though given the number of reports that got submitted not only by her but Bradford, Shen and Vahlen as well, she had no doubt she was just rehashing old information to them.

"Thank you Councilman, though it is the efforts and sacrifices of our strike teams that make the difference in the field." It was probably considered an uninspired response, but it is one that she truly believed in and would continue to do so whilst commander of X-Com.

"Well said Commander, let us not keep you from your duties any longer, Council out..." As the other members that made up the X-Com council vanished one by one from their viewing screens, Kate was a little surprised that the director stayed, leaning forward in his chair before speaking once more.

"You are probably wondering why none of the others questioned you about your new, otherworldly ally or his abilities?" At her short nod the director continued, crossing his fingers and leaning back as a slightly frustrated tone entered his voice.

"Whilst I have no choice regarding who gets elected to the Council, I can say that there are... Alternate views on how X-Com should proceed going forward, views that will not be helped by the appearance of someone with the powers your teams have reported. Whilst I commend your team for their professionalism and honesty, all mention of this... Ghost will be mundane in nature from now on in the official reports." Obviously this decision weighed more than slightly on the director, as he was looking slightly uncomfortable for the first time since Kate had been introduced to him.

"Whilst I am not saying there will be a leak from the Council if the aliens do try and subvert you through civilian channels, best we avoid that risk entirely regarding one of your potential ace cards. That said, I expect to be kept updated regarding any ideas that our guest may have to improving our combat capabilities, I have already started accumulating some extra funding in case there needs to be some... Unofficial R&D testing. Keep vigilant though Commander, if you are right and he is hiding things from us, then we need to ensure that he does not compromise our mission, no matter how useful he may seem. Council out."

The position that the Council director had taken regarding Harry was surprising, but the caution he showed given the mind controlling abilities the aliens had already shown made a lot of sense. Kate would have to speak to the other strike force leaders about their reports, but the offer of discreet additional funding for projects related to utilising Harry's powers should keep Shen and Vahlen happy if nothing else, and Bradford would just follow her orders as long as he believed she had approval from higher powers.

Reactivating her communicator, Kate flipped to Bradford's channel, both to check whether Harry had been found as well as to get Vahlen and Shen up to the command centre. Best to get the new information across to them as soon as possible, Vahlen in particular would be ecstatic at the possibility of more money for her budget, given the money they had put into the extra security systems they created to catch Harry when he was being... Difficult.

"Bradford." She could have just carried on speaking and given her orders straight away, but she didn't know if he was busy with someone or something else and she preferred to have her command fully focussed when she was giving her instructions, so it was better to give them a chance to separate themselves from their tasks before listening.

"Commander, I have Ghost here as you requested, do you want me to send him in?" She had originally wanted to see Harry about where he kept running off to, obviously it was somewhere off base as no one seemed to be able to find him or contact him when he did pull these disappearing acts, but given that he had just been an important discussion point it was best she included him on the briefing.

"Yes, then get Dr Vahlen and Dr Shen on the line, I want the three of you in here as well for a briefing, the sooner the better."

"Of course Commander, Bradford out." Her tone had probably been a little abrupt, but Bradford seemed to be one for action over niceties and his response meant that he hadn't taken offence.

She didn't have to wait long, the door hissing open less than minute later to admit Bradford and Harry, the former jumping to attention whilst the latter merely gave a small smile and a nod before starting to have a little explore around the room. It was something Kate had noticed he did in every room he went into, and when she had asked him about it, he had merely looked a little surprised before stating his reply like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

" _I'm making sure I know where all the fixed cover is... And the best angles to cover the entrances in case of attack."_

The level of preparedness, which was the polite term for what she knew some of Sabre team were referring to as 'batshit crazy paranoia', was both impressive and more than slightly disturbing to see in someone who was at least 5 years younger than her.

"Not that I mind seeing one of the few rooms in this place that I haven't yet managed to get into, doing it whilst authorised and because I was asked takes a lot of the fun out of it..." The comment was typical for the young 'wizard', obviously Bradford had annoyed him before she had called them in and he was determined to wind the older man up because of it.

She wondered whether he had some way of reading their minds to find out their greatest conversational and emotional weaknesses, because other than herself and surprisingly the young rookie on Skyhammer he was capable of aggravating each and every member of her command structure if given more than half an hours contact with them. But as Bradford noticeably took a deep breath before speaking she dismissed the idea, if that was the case then she really would have been in trouble for some of the thoughts she had entertained.

"Commander, Ghost wants to requisition a Sky Ranger to go buy a picture frame, and doesn't seem to accept that such vital equipment can be taken from readiness levels for a reason such as ' _I wanted a team picture'."_ The attempted serious expression on Harry's face, as Kate turned to give him her best expecting look, caused her face to crack into a smile even as she quirked her eyebrow to get him to get on with it.

"Well, actually I wanted to get a large portrait frame, some canvas and a paint set including brush. But I decided that picture frame was simple enough to wind officer Bradford up and throw Sabre squad's tail off for a while, without giving too much of the plan away..." The fact that Harry spoke so casually about being unofficially stalked wherever he went was something that annoyed Kate more than it should, the idea that her soldiers were indirectly going against her orders and potentially pissing off one of her most powerful allies grated with her on a professional level.

' _And it is nothing to you on a personal level? It's just because they are not obeying the spirit of your orders that you want to go use Sabre team as hand to hand combat practice until they learn their lesson?'_ Ignoring the internal jibe, Kate did her best to look serious as she stared Harry down.

"And I assume the reason for this acquisition would be something would be strategically useful to us? You aren't just wanting to get a self portrait done..." She knew he wasn't, but by mentioning it she was stopping him from trying to wind her up with the same line, Harry's grin showing that he already had another line he was going to use in it's place.

"It depends, how strategically important would it be for you to meet the real brains to my brawn?..."

What?

 **A/N: A short chapter, but one that covers quite a bit, even if there was no alien blasting to keep the impatient ones happy.**

 **What do people think of my Head councilman? He seems almost as paranoid as Mad Eye, and given the sheer amount of power he seems to hold even in X-Com 2 it surprises me that he is someone that seems to be ignored in most fanfictions I have read.**

 **So I haven't covered any new tech or ideas that Harry has come up with. Don't worry though, one of them will be coming next chapter and it will be a howler...**


	7. Rocking the Boat in Rammstein

As his feet touched the Tarmac Harry found himself quite glad at the opportunity to leave base for something other than a mission, even if it was trading one military base for another for this particular trip. Ramstein air base was probably the single largest facility Harry had ever been to, and even if X-Com HQ was more impressive in terms of technology, the volume of planes and helicopters he could see just from the access ramp was enough to make it a close comparison.

"You ready Ghost?" Erin's call, from where she and the rest of Skyhammer team were waiting with a couple of what looked to be American Officers, made Harry realise that he had zoned out as he took in the sights.

"Sorry Sergeant." He pulled off a quick salute to the Americans as he reached the group in four short steps, Erin had been taking him through military etiquette on Kate's orders since the Commander agreed to the trip and revealed the instructions about hiding his magical talent, couldn't pretend to be Spec Ops if he didn't have the moves after all.

"Nice to see some actual faces attached to this mysterious unit no one will tell us anything about, the fact that your plane is beyond anything I've ever seen is pretty much the only thing we know about you guys." The officer who spoke was clearly casting for information even as he saluted back, his thick Southern accent hinting at Texas or one of the Southern states, his manner remarkably relaxed given he was meant to be representing the air base to an outside group of unknowns.

The fact that the other officer was merely stood silently to the side and slightly behind the first officer meant that the speaker was probably superior in rank, a distinction Harry couldn't be 100 % sure of without a chance to ask Erin in private, they hadn't covered US military ranks and apparel in enough detail for him to recognise anyone below a Colonel.

"Well unfortunately sir we are only here to grab our supplies and drop Ghost off, he's on extended leave after his last mission and wanted to take the long route to Brunssum, we will have to just leave you to your guessing for now. Better luck next time." Kumiko shut down any further attempts to dig some more info on X-Com, obviously her no nonsense attitude and stern tone was not to the American's amusement as the smile left his face faster than most people would imagine.

"Now look here, if you want to keep using this base as your... Don't you walk away, we aren't done here!" Harry kept on walking as the American lost his cool at last, he had to get off site and into the local town as soon as possible to get the supplies he needed, and letting this fool bluster self-importantly would just slow everything down more than it needed to be.

The fact that the American was so insistent to know more about X-Com was troubling, given that he hardly seemed the type to keep this encounter to himself. If the aliens were infiltrating the world's infrastructure with the intent of disrupting unity and also finding X-Com, this kind of incident would put them on the right track all too easily.

"Halt! Let me see some ID soldier." Flashing his ID to the man dressed in a military police uniform, Harry was glad that Kate had been so willing to get him set up 'on the books' at short notice.

For now he was listed as a member of the Royal Marines and that would check out as long as he didn't run into someone from 'his' regiment in person, and given his gear he was assured that everyone would just assume he was Spec Ops and not ask any further questions. It seemed a rather hefty security flaw to be honest, but it was working in his favour so he wouldn't question it too much for now.

A moment later the MP handed back his ID and nodded respectfully before waving on to where Harry had seen a road checkpoint whilst they were coming into land that seemed to serve as one of the main entrances and exits from camp. The town of Kaiserslautern or 'K-town' was the largest non-military settlement nearby, and whilst Harry's cursory search of the Internet hadn't revealed somewhere he could definitely find a portrait frame and the required paints, there were at least three antique and military accessory stores that would be able to provide him with what he needed in a pinch.

"ID please." The gate guard was far politer than either the MP or the American had been though he seemed more than slightly bored with the situation, the accent placing him as a local even if his pronunciation of what must have been a second language was better than some purebloods Harry had known in his old world.

"Of course, any trucks heading to K-town soon? I'm off duty for a couple of days but I don't think my sergeant's idea of R&R included a pair of 10 mile hikes on the first day." Harry had a back up plan of course, as he didn't think he could physically manage 20 miles let alone actually want to do that kind of distance, but given what he had just been thinking the less conspicuous he seemed the better.

The guard laughed and seemed a lot happier to deal with Harry after that, pointing him in the direction of a large truck driver who had just finished dropping off some supplies and would be heading back in that direction. The driver's English was a lot less proficient than the gate guard's, but he seemed to understand K-town well enough as he gestured for Harry to get in the passenger side of his truck.

The trip was pleasant enough, the driver asking him in broken English everything he could think of about England, primarily about Football and Manchester United of whom the driver was a fan. Harry had learned enough about football from Dean to answer the questions vaguely, but it was one part of his cover he hadn't thought about, so he added reviewing of all things British into his rather hectic work schedule.

As they reached K-Town Harry recognised the Main Street from his investigations on Google maps, though he had required significant help from a giggling Erin at first given his lack of technological expertise, and so he bid his newest 'friend' goodbye with a promise to pick the man up some Man U memorabilia the next time he was back home. He doubted the trucker thought he would actually do it, but Harry had plans to visit England soon anyway, and given the popularity of this particular football team a visit to their grounds wouldn't be a bad idea all things considered.

"Ghost, do you read?" Pressing down on the specific point on his uniform gloves, Harry was quick to reply to Kumiko as he continued walking down the street towards the first of the antique shops he had memorised the location of, Kumiko was very much all business on the job and Harry preferred to keep on her good side given the difficulties he was having with sabre team.

"Loud and clear Skyhammer, just got into K-town and approaching the first objective now, how long have I got?" The plan was for Harry to apparate back to the Skyranger when he had the gear he needed so that they could leave as quickly as possible without needing to wait for him to get back conventionally, though he hoped he would have long enough to do some exploring as well as the supply mission.

"The Lieutenant Colonel spent 10 minutes threatening to call the MPs on you for your 'gross disrespect', and then nearly came to blows with Arnie when it was politely pointed out that he had no authority over you or us for us to disrespect." Clearly the man had some issues if he had gotten that bent out of shape over such a small thing, and though he knew Kate wouldn't like it he was more than slightly amused at the chaos he had unintentionally caused.

"Is he going to be a problem with getting the supplies we need?" Despite his amusement at the situation, Harry didn't want to make things more difficult for X-Com than they already were, fighting the aliens was enough.

"No, a quick call to our actual base contact had it resolved quickly enough, the man just imagines himself as more important than he actually is, like someone else I know..." It was a subtle reprimand and a sarcastic joke rolled into one, and Harry hoped that Kumiko had merely come up with such wit on the spot, rather than merely saving it and others up for a moment like now as he suspected.

"A present to say sorry for ignoring the pompous git despite the fact that he deserved it whilst I'm here, got it. Anything else?" There was a pause before Kumiko sighed.

"No, just make sure you are ready to go if we need you."

As he reached the shop he had been hoping was still in place from the old website he had found Harry couldn't help but feel a little paranoid, since he had stepped into K-town he felt like he was being watched, but his subtle attempts to scout the area for potential watchers as he walked hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary.

"Wilkommen, Wilkommen, ah einer soldat. Sprechen sie deutsch?" Harry's German was basic at best, but even he understood the gist of what the man was asking him.

"Nien, spriechst du Englisch?" It was probably said wrong, but the man's eyes lit up and he nodded before shouting over his shoulder into the further recesses of the shop.

"Franziska!" There was a crashing sound from the back, followed by some cursing and the sounds of movement before a young girl of about 17 appeared, her short cut brown hair framing a rather pretty face that was only slightly marred by the glare she was sporting in what he assumed was her father's direction.

"Was?" She had clearly seen him, but the presence of a stranger didn't seem to dissuade her from being put out with the chuckling man, who didn't seem put off by her anger in the slightest.

"Ein Englander soldat..." And with that the girl's focus was shifted onto Harry, the sudden excited smile such a change that it took Harry a moment to realise she had moved to stand directly in front of him.

"Hallo, sorry, I mean hello sir. What can we do for you?" It was clear that the girl was enjoying the chance to speak English with someone, and her father didn't seem to be interested in conversing with her in the language given his use of German.

"I'm looking for some items at the request of my CO... It means commanding officer." He clarified the abbreviation as the girl looked slightly confused, the girl nodding in happy understanding before grabbing his hand and taking him further into the store.

"Well, what are you looking for? Most of the...items?" Harry was surprised that she paused in speaking, before he realised she was looking at him to see if she had used the word right, and when he nodded that she had said it right she carried on speaking in a fast enthusiastic manner.

"Most of the items are on the second floor, though we have some... Beneath ground space as well." After explaining what exactly he was looking for, Harry found himself having a remarkably enjoyable shop, Franziska's enthusiasm and constant questions reminding him poignantly of a younger Hermione and despite her initial grumpiness she had a remarkable knowledge of what frames they had and what they were made from.

Twenty minutes later he had A3 three frames and enough paint to make at least half a dozen paintings, at a twenty percent discount on the promise to visit and help Franziska with her English, which wouldn't be a bad way to spend some of his downtime all things considered. Bidding Franziska farewell, Harry palmed the elder wand from his holster to lighten the bags once he was out of sight, before activating his communicator once more.

"I've got what I need Skyhammer, Eta on your end?" This time it was Erin that answered, indicating Kumiko was most likely busy talking with some of the staff at the base.

"The supplies are still being packed up due to the change in schedules Ghost, so you still have an hour or so, if need be we can delay a little longer with a maintenance issue. I would prefer not to in case the air crews start offering to help, last thing we need is a load of unauthorised helpers digging through our classified machinery." It was more time than Harry had anticipated, but he wasn't one to complain at an opportunity when it presented itself.

"Just give me a five minute warning when you are ready, in the meantime I will see if I can get us some... supplementary gear..." Whilst the base was nice it was very clearly lacking any form of personal touch to make it feel like home, something that Harry planned on addressing now if at all possible, but first he needed to find someone to trade a few galleons with.

It shouldn't take long, given the size of each galleon and the fact he had several thousand hidden away back at the base as well as on his person meant he shouldn't be struggling for money anytime soon, as long as he wasn't planning on trying to buy a jet or something that is.

Now there was an idea...

[]{}#%^*+=

They'd had to cut collecting the supplies short as a report came in about another alien attack in progress, and though sabre team were being prepped they'd been closer and already geared up. The attack in Southern Denmark seemed out of place to Erin in comparison to the other attacks, primarily because it wasn't focused in a populated area and instead at a woodland resort.

"This is Ghost, I count at least five Sectoids and six thin men, but I can't get any closer without alerting one of the mutts they have on guard." Harry had not been particularly happy about coming on a mission, but he had kept it to himself and it was only because Erin was getting to the stage where she could read his mood from his body language that she could tell he was annoyed.

Still he had slipped off the ship with that cloak of his when they arrived, and though Kumiko was clearly angry that he had gone off lone wolf on them, the intelligence he was providing them was incredibly useful for them to plan their attack.

"We have your position Ghost, we are approaching from the south west, can you circle the enemy and catch them in a crossfire?" The aliens weren't being remotely quiet as they moved the bodies of the captured civilians, so they knew roughly where the enemy were even if they couldn't see them through the trees yet.

"I'll work my way round to one of the huts, I think I have an idea about how to make this easier for us. Wait for the signal and then come in hot." There was something approaching vindictive amusement in Harry's voice as he said this, and Erin got the feeling he was planning on taking his annoyance at the situation out on the aliens.

"What plan Ghost? And what signal?" There was only a chuckle as any form of reply to Kumiko's exasperated statement, and Erin could only imagine how Bradford was reacting back at HQ right now.

Any further discussion was put on hold as Erin caught sight of buildings through the trees, an indication they were nearly at the strike zone. The four of them moved into cover without a word, the practice sessions in Harry's 'training hall' really coming in handy towards cementing their team cohesiveness.

Erin moved forward first, swapping her assault rifle for a shotgun that would have been too cumbersome to dual-carry if it wasn't for Harry's lightening charms upon the team's gear. As the smallest and fastest member of the team she had fallen quite handily into the 'scout/assault' role, and as such she moved forward to the corner of the building in front of them and peeked round the corner.

She ducked her head back almost instantly as she saw a Sectoid dragging a body less than a dozen yards away, but it didn't seem to have noticed her given the lack of audible reaction, so she poked her head around more cautiously this time. Making sure to scan the scene slowly, to allow her team and HQ to get a proper look and Control to update their HUD mini-maps, Erin could see why Ghost had been so cautious about approaching closer than he had to give his initial report.

Whilst the humanoid aliens were for the most part moving bodies, three of the thin men along with half a dozen of the newly categorised Wildens were clearly stood in sentry positions around the clearing in the middle of the camp, obviously the aliens weren't as confident as they were in their previous abductions.

"Marking alien positions now Hammer team, given Ghost's 'plan' optimal overwatch positions are being marked on your HUDs...now." Bradford was as angry with Harry's style as Erin had thought he would be, but at least he seemed to be rolling with it for now.

"Understood Central." Whilst the others affirmed verbally Erin merely double clicked her communicator as an affirmative so as to not risk discovery by talking.

Moving forward at crawl to where her position had been marked, Erin kept an eye on Alessandra's scoped HUD camera from where their designated sniper had taken position on a climbing wall almost three hundred yards further back, freezing every time an alien turned in her direction. It was still disconcerting to see herself so exposed from a 3rd person point of view, but it was better than nothing she rationalised as she finally reached the woodpile she was going to be using as cover.

Clicking twice as she shifted into a crouching position, Erin was surprised to hear the Commander come over the comms.

"Skyhammer team are in position, waiting on you Ghost." The commander's voice seemed to remind Harry to be professional about the whole thing, as he came on the line twenty or so seconds later with a far more serious tone of voice.

"I've set up some things in the small hut on the far side of the clearing from you that should draw their attention, if it goes well they will send the mutts in after things get loud and the rest of the traps will neutralise them. With their focus away from Skyhammer it should be easy to gun them down before they can get to cover. I'll stay out of the way to avoid the risk of friendly fire, though I will be ready to support if it is needed." How he was planning on judging whether they would need support was anyone's guess, but at least now they knew what their Maverick was planning before the shit hit the fan for a change.

On cue a loud crashing noise could be heard from the hut Harry had just mentioned, making every alien in the area turn with weapons at the ready, a sign that they were being far more cautious than before. After a few moments, with no further sounds from the hut as Harry had probably intended, one of the Sectoids gestured imperiously to a thin man before gesturing at the hut.

"Huh, didn't think the little guys would be in charge given the fact we encountered them first, the thin man really doesn't look happy about being bait." At this point Erin had to duck back to avoid the roving gaze of one of the other thin men, and so she was left with Harry's commentary to give her insight, as the man refused to wear a combat helmet with a HUD attachment for some reason and the rest of the team were keeping their heads down as well.

"Ghost, we have no eyes on the situation due to maintaining cover, keep it professional but keep us updated as to when Hammer team should be ready to strike, over." Bradford's attempt to bring a little professionalism to Harry's reporting fell on deaf ears as Harry snorted before continuing.

"Want me to censor any bad words I use as well in case they hurt your delicate sensibilities Bradford? Bait is moving slowly towards the trap now, the Wilden nearest the building has joined him, nice to see at least some of the aliens give a shit about their comrades. Couple of the Sectoids are scanning the area visually, but for the most part they seem to be focused in the direction of the trap, which is as I'd hoped." There was no audible reply from Bradford but Erin did pick up the sounds of muttered arguing over the comms for a few seconds before Harry continued, seemingly annoyed at the fact he hadn't garnered more of a reaction.

"Bait will enter the building in about ten seconds, and then it is another seven to ten seconds before the rest of my surprise kicks in. You might want to activate those dampening runes I gave you, it's going to be loud..." Harry had inscribed a stone necklace for each of them with a set of Norse runes that he said would activate to create a field that would act a lot like insulation in a house partition, it wouldn't eliminate the noise necessarily but it would dampen noises that could given them away as well reduce the effect of enemy attacks such as flashbangs.

Reaching up to the necklace, Erin gave the two piece stone ornament on it a sharp tug as Harry had instructed them on the ride over, the runes lighting up slightly as they activated and the world became eerily silent around her.

"Ghost, I think these work a little too well, I can't hear..." Kumiko's speech from behind and to the right of Erin's position trailed off as there were suddenly muffled gunshots from the main area of the camp, sounding like silenced rounds being fired from behind a wall.

"The bait has been taken, if he survived the stunning spells I left in there there are several more lethal variants that will deal with him if he tries to get out, and now the remaining Aliens are all weapons ready in the direction of the hut. Next trap activating now, strike in five, four..." It was like someone had taken the worst sounds in the world, such as television static and nails on a chalkboard, and mashed them all together before unleashing them at a volume that a deaf person could probably hear.

Even through the sound dampening charms it was annoyingly loud, though as Erin shifted round the logs with shotgun the ready she realised the aliens had it much worse. The Wildens were on the floor and twitching furiously as their large ears visibly bled a deep purple ooze, whilst the Sectoids seemed to be incapable of doing anything beyond grasping their heads, though one of them was firing his pistol in the direction of a large red envelope that was floating around above them.

The thin men seemed to be affected by the noise the least, which was something that not only Erin had noticed it seemed, one's head partially reduced to paste by a sniper round as Erin blew a football sized hole in another's chest with her shotgun. Both of the thin men's bodies swelled and burst in a now almost familiar manner, unleashing clouds of poisonous miasma that engulf three of the still incapacitated Sectoids, the last remaining thin man turning in her direction with a snarl and raising its gun to fire.

Erin ducked into cover behind a generator as fast as she could, but the rain of plasma never came as the thin man was cut down in a swathe of bullets that also claimed two nearby Sectoids, Hans chuckling as he strode forwards in his typical self confident manner.

"Hammer-2, it seems that the Aliens don't need to be paying attention to start locking down the Meld canisters, we'll deal with any stragglers and cover you." Kumiko's order made sense, as Erin could see the Meld canister's lights change colour to orange, in a manner they had come to recognise as it starting to begin its lockdown sequence.

This would be the first time that their team would be able to retrieve some Meld successfully, as their last mission had been a struggle to survive let alone complete any bonus objectives, something Sabre team had been none too subtle about in their boasting during their time in the break areas before Harry's first training session. She rushed forward, gunning down a Sectoid in her way and dodging the flailing claws of a prone Wilden in her mad dash towards the container, coming to a stop in front of the series of panels that constituted an alien version of a keyboard.

"Right Central, what am I doing here?" Contrary to popular sci-fi movies it took slightly more than a quick look at an alien device to be able to work it, Sabre team losing the first Meld container they encountered as they triggered some kind of manual kill switch that wiped the Meld out instantly.

On the second and third containers they managed to avoid the killswitch, but by the time they stopped the sequence most of the Meld had been deactivated and therefore useless to them. As it was, they only had enough back at base for light testing, both Dr Shen and Dr Vahlen were not happy to have a new technology that they couldn't do anything with due to lack of resources.

"Follow the instructions that will appear on your HUD momentarily Hammer-2, the rest of Hammer team have cut down nearly all of the hostiles so there should be no..." Erin imagined the word Bradford used was interruptions, but she was thrown bodily through the air by an invisible force that had her head spinning.

Dropping into a roll, Erin righted herself in time to see the Meld container get hit by a wave of plasma, only for the plasma to shear off some kind of invisible force field and fall to the ground where it quickly melted into the floor.

"Sniper over on the North side, everyone get to cover." Kumiko's call made it clear what had happened, somehow Harry had spotted the trap before it was sprung and saved her life... Again.

"Thought the container's placement was a little too coincidental with the gap in the huts, let's see how our friend likes some company..." Out of nowhere a flock of owls appeared and shot towards the shots origin, shifting between the trees for a few moments before one of them dived down at something, only to be blown to pieces by plasma mid descent.

"Got the bastard, hold onto your gun Erin..." Harry's voice came from right beside her and she just about managed to resist the urge to spin and fire, not that she had a chance as he grabbed her and she suddenly felt like she had just been sucked through a straw that was too small for her.

Even as the feeling threatened to overwhelm her, Erin realised she was suddenly not in the middle of the clearing anymore, but by a large elm tree in the forest and that sound was suddenly back on full. The sight of a small rat like creature about two thirds her size, trying to beat off Harry's summons with a rifle almost the as big as it was would probably have been funny, if not for the fact it had tried to kill her moments before.

Her shotgun ready despite the nerve rattling trip she had just endured, Erin brought it up and fired, the creature somehow managing to react to the noise of the shot as it half spun before catching the blast to it's left shoulder. The arm was blown clean off in a spray of dark blue blood, the thing giving a chittering scream before the Owls descended onto it in a flurry of talons and feathers.

"Sniper down, I repeat sniper down, looks like another type of alien. Will try and make sure there is something of a body left to retrieve, though Ghost's owls seem to be determined to leave nothing but blood and bones." Erin's last remark was aimed at the young wizard still stood beside her, who gave her a cheeky grin before waving his wand once and muttering something caused all of the Owls to turn back into various debris that he had obviously found on the campsite, a particularly large rock that had been a majestic snowy owl fell to land on the still weakly squeaking alien with a heavy thud.

"All yours, Thor..." The nickname made her smile despite the obvious jab it was intended as, it was one Harry had given her during training and had initially wound her up until she had heard the names he had given to Sabre team and the other recruits, in comparison to them the reference to the Norse God of Thunder had been a compliment.

"Central this is Hammer-2, I have at least one alien alive, though badly wounded and bleeding out. Please advise." Grabbing the personal first aid kit from her belt, Erin did her best to stem the blood shooting from the thing's stump of an arm.

"Do what you can to keep it alive Hammer-2, and get aboard the Skyranger with it for immediate extraction back to base for a medical assessment, the rest of Skyhammer can secure the area and wait for Sabre team's arrival. Ghost, anything you can do to assist?" Harry was still on edge despite his obvious attempt to disguise it with sarcasm before, but after a few seconds he was next to Erin and waving his wand in a complicated arc that caused the alien's entire body to glow.

"If I knew where HQ was and it wasn't probably over 1000 miles away then I might have been able to get it there quicker, but I have a couple of things I can do..." A flick and two jabs later the torrent of blood slowed sharply, followed by Harry motioning Erin to move away from the wound.

"Incendio." The flame shot forth from his wand in a manner that made it almost seem alive, cauterising the wound even as the alien awoke from unconsciousness with a chittering cry, that was silenced by Harry waving his wand once and causing it to freeze in place.

"Body Bind spell works as a form of medical stasis? Good to know. Central, target's wound is cauterised and stable for now, not exactly an expert in the field of medical trauma care. Moving to extraction with target now, Hammer-3, check the bait building, if my traps worked we may have a second subject to bring home with us." There was a moment's pause before Kumiko spoke up, given her heavy breathing she had obviously been sweeping the far side of the camp.

"Hammer-3 is dealing with the meld container, I will check the building in question now, see you back at base." And with that Harry grabbed both her and their newest 'Acquisition' and the feeling of the tube came over her again, though this time she had been expecting it so it hadn't been nearly as bad, which meant she was only slightly disorientated as she found herself in the hold of the Skyranger without any particular feeling that she had moved at all.

"Big Sky, this is Hammer-2, we are now aboard. Get us back to base." It was a testament to Big Sky, their pilot, that she didn't even question how they had gotten on board with the loading ramp still closed.

"Roger that Hammer-2. Central this is Big Sky, the Magician is in the Hat, returning to the warren now..." Either that or Harry's powers just weren't considered impressive anymore, something that would annoy him no doubt when he found out, along with the clearly targeted code names for their team that Central had given them.

Not that she would be the one to tell Harry about it, given the ease at which he pulled a beer from one of his pockets that definitely shouldn't have fitted in there and popped the cap, she didn't want him going after her like he had with Sabre team.

She liked her hair the way it was, and shocking pink really didn't go with her complexion...

 **A/N: Another chapter done, and this was a long one even by my other stories standards, so I hope you guys like it.**

 **We didn't make it to Hermione's big reveal, apologies but I think what we have covered makes up for that. A new alien, Harry's new 'weapon' and a show of how the different alien minions interact, as well as a brief interaction between X-Com and outside militaries.**

 **As always everyone, review and let me know what you think!**

 **Defias Out!**


	8. Trouble in Paradise

"You two realise that you don't have to stay here? We have at least two hours before the paint dries and then I need to finish the enchantment…" Looking up from where she and the Commander had been discussing the events of earlier in the afternoon, Erin King found that despite the fact their resident wonder had spoken he hadn't so much as shifted from where he was sat in front of his newest creation.

It was the first time Harry had spoken since he had finished his painting almost an hour before, an event that had drawn quite the crowd when the paintbrush started painting _inside_ the canvas itself, though almost everyone had disappeared when it was clear the party was over.

Harry had ignored all questions and queries fired his way from the moment he started, The Commander having to physically prevent more than one person pushing through the barrier Harry had put up to try and grab his attention more abruptly, given Sabre team had been the main party she didn't think concern was their primary motive. Though given the way Harry had been moving like a man in a demented trance, the flailing arms and floating tools would have dissuaded all but the most determined distractors.

"Then why are you still here? You haven't done anything since you finished painting, it's not like someone will run off with the painting…" Erin trailed off as there was a subtle tightening of Harry's shoulders, subtle enough that most people would have missed them if she hadn't been looking for it, judging by the shifting of the Commander's own body language she wasn't the only one to catch it.

"Who?" The Commander's voice was like that of ice grating against rock, her hands balled into fists and eyes narrowed to slits.

The Commander's anger was like that of a sleeping bear, most of the time it wasn't even noticeable despite the fact that she should have reacted, but when properly woken it was a roaring and raging beast that would unleash bloody vengeance upon those that she deemed 'worthy'.

"Enough that you would be needing to use the terms 'mass resource reallocation' or 'personnel purge' if you were to try and deal with them the way you are thinking of dealing with them Kate. I can't even leave a napkin in a bin without someone stealing it, the number of times people have 'bumped' into me and tried to take my wand have made the whole thing almost routine." Though Harry was doing his best to sound casual, Erin could tell that the constant attempts and thefts were stressing him out, it was no wonder he hadn't told anyone where his equipment was kept when he wasn't utilising it.

"And that means I am just meant to let them continue harassing you? Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Erin could guess, Harry had always struck her as the type that preferred to resolve his issues by himself, which also explained the steady increase in the number of 'pranks' that were affecting more and more of the operational staff who were in the know.

"We can keep an eye on the painting if you want to grab a break Harry, I have some paperwork that I can do here as easily as in the squad room, especially with all the new toys that you have gotten for everyone." Erin knew that the Commander didn't appreciate her interjecting when Harry didn't respond, but this was going to be a shitstorm of a situation without Harry disappearing on them because they 'pushed', and it would be a good way to check whether or not the two of them were trusted in Harry's mind.

"Thanks Erin, but I thought you two would want to go and see the first attempt at interrogating the aliens we captured? I don't have anything else I particularly want to do now anyway." It was the reason Dr Vahlen and Shen weren't here, the two of them were definitely counted in the group of 'trusted' individuals, who actually sought out the young wizard socially as well as professionally.

"I will watch the footage afterwards, they don't need me to hold their hand every step of the way. I know there is at least one person who wants to talk with you about some classified matters, so if you head to the briefing room Bradford will be able to set you up. Sergeant King can escort you there and then the two of you can go to the break room for an hour or so." It wasn't a full order but it was close, meaning that the Commander would go the extra step to make them so if she felt it necessary.

"You won't let this go will you?" There was a moment where Erin thought Harry was going to be difficult, if there was one aspect of him that everyone knew well it was his dislike of being 'ordered' around, but then he stood from where he had been sat and turned to them with a small smile on his face.

"I really am tempted to change my mind about this, the last thing I need is the two of you getting along…" This wasn't the first time he had referred to the mysterious 'brains' that he was going to introduce to them with this portrait, and Erin couldn't help but think that he was being more mysterious than he needed to be on purpose, not for the first time.

"Just go, I'll call ahead so the Council Head knows you're coming." Judging by the slight exasperation that Erin could detect in the Commander's tone, she wasn't the only one whose Harry's attempt at intrigue was affecting.

"I'm meeting the big guy himself?" Erin was as surprised as Harry sounded, the Council was very much the 'shadowy organisation' that many people imagined when it came to organisations like this, and the Commander was the only one to have been allowed into a meeting with them.

Kate nodded and then Harry grinned and waved to Erin as he made his way towards the door.

"Come on then Sergeant, if you are going to escort me to the break room afterwards then you need to come meet the big guy with me, wouldn't want to upset him and storm out without someone there to try and stop me after all." Not exactly the situation Erin wanted to meet her big boss in, not that she wanted to meet him at all to be honest, something the Commander obviously realised as she grabbed Harry's arm before he could get past her.

"Fine, Sergeant King can stay here and I will babysit you through meeting one of the most powerful people on the planet, though I am now hoping he tells me to shoot you. Sergeant, do you need us to wait for you to fetch anything?" Erin shook her head, though she was glad that the Commander had thought ahead like that.

"It is fine Commander, Lieutenant Kumiko wanted to have a debrief of the mission anyway, so we can take advantage of the free room rather than trying to requisition one." And the fact that having the rest of her team here in case Sabre team all turned up at once was an unspoken benefit, one that she was sure the other two in the room appreciated.

She waited until the two of them had left the room, the Commander almost half dragging the still grinning wizard as he tried to protest his change of escort, to let her slight disappointment show. Despite the fact that it would have been frustrating beyond belief to sit through a meeting between Harry and the Council, most of it caused by the wizard's dislike of overarching authority in pretty much any form, it had still been a hell of a sign of trust for him to invite her in such a roundabout way.

Not that she was overly concerned if he trusted her or not, such a thing would imply that she cared what he thought about her, and Kumiko and the others teased her enough about that as it is…

!"£$%^&*()_+

"Commander, I assume this is Operative Ghost?" The shadowy figure of the head of the Council filled the screen in front of them, and Harry had to admit he was slightly impressed, the man was either using some impressive digital technology or had worked a lot with the lighting of the room to achieve quite such a shadowy presence on screen.

"Affirmative Sir, I assume the rest of the Council aren't going to be joining us?" The Councilman shook his head and Harry was surprised to see Kate relax slightly and drop some of the military rigidness from her shoulders, he would have thought that a one on one meeting would have been worse than the whole Council together.

"From the initial reports that I have recieved Ghost, you are not one for rules and regulations, and you take issue with those who you feel have not earned the authority they wield." Harry kept his face as composed as he could other than raising a single eyebrow, they were not going to go through the usual bullshit bravado that most politicians tried to bolster their position with? It made a nice change.

"That's one way to put it, but given I've never actually served in the military this whole 'rank and file' has never really been something I've dealt with. Now, do you have a name that I can call you? I'm not one for this 'Sir, yes Sir!' bullshit." To his credit the Councilman didn't even flinch, regarding Harry silently for a moment.

"You can call me Azrael if you wish for something to call me something in particular Mr Potter, though from what I understand you will have a nickname for me in short order regardless. Now, I do not wish to distract you both from your work for long, so perhaps we should get to the reason I called this meeting?" Harry stored the name away for now but nodded, he suspected that the Councilman had picked that particular name for a reason, he was unfamiliar with it but would ask Hermione.

"This organisation owes you quite extensively for the work that you have carried out so far Ghost, both before and after you were revealed to us. Half of the strike force owe you their lives at least once, you have created a training room that is easily four times better than anything we could have managed by ourselves and at half the cost, and thanks to you we have our first live aliens to interrogate." Huh, when put like that it did seem like he had done quite a bit.

"But we cannot rely on your goodwill alone with the war that is coming, especially given the attitudes of those less… willing to accept change, and I am sure the Commander agrees with me that your services are certainly too valuable for us to take advantage of so freely." If Harry wasn't paranoid before he was now, given they had only discussed this issue less than an hour before in what he thought was a fully secure room, but Azrael continued before he could speak up.

"So I have taken the time to set you up with a life in this world Mr Potter, including an array of potential homes and pockets of land for you to peruse. Given your seeming desire to fade into the background I have made sure that nothing too ostentatious made the list." That explained what the massive file was on the desk at least, something he could look through with Hermione and maybe one or two of the others later.

"That sounds… generous, and I assume it comes with a contract that details exactly what you want me to provide to this venture and for how long?" Whilst it wouldn't be as binding as a magical contract, after the Goblet of Fire there was no way Harry was letting himself get involved with something without reading every last little loophole.

"Your services are valuable, to the point many would kill for even the minor modifications you have made to Skyhammer's arsenal so far. I am hoping that you will be able to continue providing such boosts to our enterprise until this threat is dealt with. I have a draft contract in the works, which is only waiting on you to choose which assets fit your preferences before I sign it over to the Commander for security purposes. And Mr Potter…" The Councilman's tone made Harry look up from where he had started perusing the documents he had been given.

"Make sure that at least one property you pick does not end up on the contract, under the provision that it can be used as a safehouse for our people if the worst comes to happen…" Not exactly a morale booster that their head honcho was planning for scenarios where the aliens won, but it was better to be prepared for the worst.

"Understood, though if we are talking about doomsday scenarios, are there any other contingencies I need to be aware of? Who knows, I might be able to help." That, and if there were, better Harry was aware of them now in case he did need to bug out for whatever reason…

[]{}#%^*+=

Watching the newly named Azrael and Harry duke it out over the course of a 'conversation' had been an enlightening experience for Jane, as well as more than slightly amusing. The two most enigmatic characters she knew danced around several issues, ranging from Harry's new abode to the details of his new contract. Both of them were far too used to playing by their own rules, and both were too stubborn to do the sensible thing and back down or try and compromise overly much.

The discussion wound down after an hour or so, and for the most part Jane felt like she didn't need to have been there at all, but the unintentional stonewalling between the two men seemed to have encouraged Harry to be a little more socially active as they went to the interrogation room. As such Kate actually enjoyed him asking her advice and opinion on what Azrael had offered Harry, a sign that he trusted her opinion enough for her to be unbiased about her own boss.

They were too late for the interrogation of the rat sniper thing Harry and Sergeant King had brought down, something that was made clear by the thing's body being visible on one of the operating tables used for autopsies, but Dr Vahlen was more than happy to give them a recap as she finished writing up her initial notes.

"It is clear that, whilst the alien Sectoids can exert some level of mental dominance over humans in the right conditions, the aliens do not have detailed knowledge of human language. Or at least these other aliens don't, and that will make extracting information from them more challenging." Dr Vahlen paused for a moment, so that she could activate a recording of some of the tests they had carried out.

"It has given us some interesting results of the creature's responses to various stimuli including light, hearing and smell before it expired, so with some more samples we will be able to start highlighting the best pieces of equipment and weapons to be used against them." Even if no actionable Intel had been obtained, the benefits of discovering the strengths and weaknesses of individual aliens made the effort of capturing some of them alive worth it in Kate's head.

"And you are both okay with torturing and killing prisoners to obtain such information?" The question from Harry, in a tone that made it clear exactly what his view on the matter was, surprised Kate even as Dr Vahlen shook her head firmly.

"The alien died from it's wounds rather than anything we did to it, it's physiology is significantly different to our own and after the initial batch of tests my attempt to repair some of the damage sent it into shock." Dr Vahlen didn't try to defend the torture part of Harry's accusation, which given the circumstances Kate more than understood, though it seemed to mitigate some of Harry's concern as Kate decided to pitch in herself.

"Harry, I don't like it any more than you do. But you've seen first hand what the aliens are doing to us, regardless of whether their targets are civilian or military, armed or helpless. We are fighting an enemy that clearly does not care about morals or ethics, and we are so outclassed that we need every bit of information we can get to help us swing the tide in our favour. We won't be trying to kill those we take captive, but any information on their weaknesses will mean lives to our teams on the ground."

For a moment she thought Harry might be stubborn, and even when he did nod his head in understanding it was clear he didn't fully agree with what she had said, but it was enough to let her lay the conversation to rest for now. As she cast around for a way to move the conversation onwards she caught sight of the shiny new weapons that had been brought in with the captured aliens.

"How are we doing with the weaponry Doctor? Any chance of our forces being able to use it in the field?" Such an advantage would be priceless, as the damage differential between the alien's weapons and their own was incomparable by most known standards.

It was a little disappointing therefore when Dr Vahlen shook her head, the doctor picking up the smaller plasma weapon gingerly, making sure to point it away from herself or them at all times.

"Whilst having intact weapons for the first time is a great leap from the weapons parts recovered previously, this technology is so far beyond our own that trying to jump straight from one to the other would be too dangerous unless in the most desperate circumstances. We haven't even tried firing them yet, in case there is some kind of system on the trigger or fore grip that would cause the gun to self destruct or even explode. I was hoping you would be able to come up with a way of helping us test such measures safely Harry." It was obvious that Harry didn't have an immediate answer to that, by the thoughtful frown that crossed his face, so Dr Vahlen continued with the explanation.

"Even if we find out that it is safe to use these weapons in the field, we have no way of replicating the ammunition so users would be limited to the ammo already loaded. Weapons such as these are going to be more use to us as we try to develop the technology in our own way Commander, though we will need a lot more of them to start making any real progress." It made logical sense, but Kate couldn't help but feel like someone had burst the slightly inflated balloon of optimism she had been nurturing when news came in of captured aliens AND intact weaponry.

"So we have no real progress without more samples?" Dr Vahlen shook her head with a slight smile this time, motioning them over towards one of the tables that was some way from the obviously alien tech.

"Of course not Commander, with a live Thin Man we have already been able to extract a concentrated form of their poisonous spit, which seems to deteriorate rapidly in the presence of oxygen and is why we were unable to retrieve any from the corpses collected thus far. With this we will be able to create a proper anti-toxin to give out to our troops, vastly reducing one of the threats they will face out on the battlefield. But that isn't the best part." Dr Vahlen grabbed the item from the table behind her at this point and brought it back round for Kate to look at.

It was a gauntlet type glove that would cover someone's arm back to the elbow, but it was the twin gun like attachments on the top of the gauntlet that caught Kate's attention, which Dr Vahlen probably intended as she attached the gauntlet to her arm.

"We have been working on ways of subduing the various aliens we have encountered in a non-lethal manner for some time, and thanks to Harry's help we have been able to construct this. If it hadn't been for his spells and runes working to lighten and insulate the main body of the glove, then there is no way we could have expected soldiers to carry this onto the battlefield with all their other equipment." Dr Vahlen finished attaching the gauntlet with a flourish, before turning to a nearby test dummy she had requested a month before.

Kate saw Dr Vahlen squeeze her hand into a fist whilst pointing her arm in the dummies direction, two wires firing out of the gun ports Kate had already seen and slamming into the dummy's chest, which I noticed was deliberately covered in material that would help the test demonstration. The material caught light a moment later and burned for a few seconds before Harry extinguished it with a wave of his wand.

"This will allow our operatives in the field to incapacitate the aliens wherever possible, and my colleagues are already working to come up with alternate attachments to suit individual soldier needs. We tested it on both the Wilden and the Thin Man with positive results." This was the sort of breakthrough Kate needed, though it was with a slight hint of frustration that she noted it was due to Harry that such an item was feasible for combat, the young Wizard proven correct in where his true usefulness lay in this conflict.

"Excellent, if we can get three of them ready as soon as possible, our teams can field test them on their next mission. Send me a production list with the attached costs, these will go in the official budget as they will keep the Council happy, though any magic heavy versions will go through the extra expenses account I think." These new pacifiers, along with the captured aliens and weapons, would be a definite sign of progress in the Council's eyes, which hopefully would loosen their pockets a little more.

"Understood Commander, I will forward the reports to you as soon as they are ready. We have several most tests we wish to carry out on the Thin Man before we begin the interrogation properly, but I will inform you when we wish to begin." It was as close to a polite conversation finisher Kate had received from Dr Vahlen, though as she took the hint and headed towards the door, Kate saw the good doctor offer a small wave to Harry along with a warm smile.

Bitch…

 **A/N: I did originally want to get to introducing Hermione to Kate in this chapter, it would have allowed us to make significant headway into the plot of the game, but the ending just happened and fitted nicely.**

 **I wanted to show that everything wasn't just smiles and unicorns in X-COM with Harry and the members of the organisation I haven't focussed on. Even those that aren't highly mistrustful of him like Sabre team have their own reasons for hassling him, and Harry is only good at weathering such harassment for a short period of time before he will start withdrawing into himself, something that both Kate and the newly christened Azrael will be determined to avoid.**

 **Whilst Harry won't have pushed for recompense for his work, far too used to being expected to save the world for free, the others don't know this and given the situation there will be work done in the coming chapters to make Harry feel more at home at X-Com.**

 **Do you like what I did with the interrogation results? It would lead to a very different game if you had to take down multiple enemies of the same type non-lethally to get the full bonuses from them, especially if the number changed game to game.**

 **Same with the weapons and other equipment you would get from the aliens, especially if the choice was to use them with risk or research them.**

 **Let me know what you guys think of it all.**

 **Defias out!**


	9. Putting the foot down

"And that's another win for Skyhammer, making it 3 war games in a row with only two casualties for Skyhammer. Both teams report to the Squad Room for debriefing." Kumiko was quite proud of her team, it wasn't common for a more junior team to so effectively dominate a more experienced one after all, but as Enriquez stormed towards the door in an almighty rage Kumiko knew it wasn't all them.

After finishing the last touches to his portrait, Harry had taken it and disappeared to… Wherever it was he went when he wanted to rest or get some peace and quiet, and The Commander had told both Sabre team and Skyhammer team to the training suite the following day.

Something had really worked The Commander up, despite her best attempts not to show it. And as she laid out the rules of the three days of 'war games', it became clear to Kumiko at least who it was that had angered her, even if the what they had done remained unclear.

"Samurai, I mean Lieutenant, this new gear certainly is something isn't it?" As Erin jogged up beside her, Kumiko couldn't help but agree, raising her free wrist to flex the brand new exo-suit Vahlen had created for them with an only mildly reduced sense of awe.

They allowed her team to run faster, carry more equipment and even helped them with jumping and falling, though each of them weighed almost half a tonne. Without Harry's weight reducing enchantments, it would have taken a lucky break with researching the Alien's technology to have made these suits usable in the field.

Her team had been given two of the suits, which was supposedly all Shen had been able to manufacture with their current budget, though why they had been given both suits only started to become clear to Kumiko after the second round. It was only when Kumiko picked up Fahid's shotgun, having used her exo-suit to surprise and disarm him, did she realise his weapon didn't have any of the enchantments Harry had cast on Skyhammer team's training equipment and their real weapons.

"Very true Erin, though it seems that the Commander wants to prove a point to Sabre team for some reason, and I get the feeling that the choice of debriefing location means it is going to be a public point she is making." Kumiko hadn't been deliberately digging for answers, but the guilty look that flashed across Erin's face made it clear the girl knew something that she didn't.

"I don't suppose you could tell me why the boss is pissed with us Sergeant King? Given the way Avenger just went storming off, I don't think her mood is going to improve for debriefing. At least if I know what I've done, then I can try and stop my imminent demotion." Hefting her training LMG with an ease that shouldn't have been possible given her rather slim frame, Corporal Grace Kelly was the only member of Sabre team that hadn't followed her leader in storming off.

Though, given her affable nature, it wasn't really her thing.

She was the only member of the team that didn't follow 'the boss' in whatever he said and did, which given the rest of Sabre team's rather 'laddish' tendencies meant she was the only member of the team Kumiko really enjoyed spending time around. The fact that she was sharp enough to have noticed their conversation was just another bonus.

"Well, the Commander didn't exactly say I couldn't say anything…" Erin seemed to be struggling with her conscience, which normally was something that Kumiko appreciated in the girl, but as they headed towards the training area lockers Kumiko decided to help tip the scales towards gossiping for once.

"I think the Commander would appreciate the teamwork such intel sharing would display, especially if we want to avoid ending up in the same situation without knowing why. Perhaps, Corporal Kelly would be appreciative enough to buy the person who gave her the information she needed to stay out of trouble going forward a drink or two…" Grace chuckled but nodded her head as she and Alessandra started helping her and Erin out of their suits, whilst they were ready for training purposes the suits were still in alpha testing, and were impossible for someone to get into or out of by themselves.

"If it stops me scrubbing the latrines for the next 6 months, or becoming Ghost's chew toy for when he is trying out 'inventions' with Dr Vahlen, I would do far more than buy you a couple of drinks…" Kumiko knew that the innuendo, as well as the saucy wink, shouldn't have surprised her as much as it did.

Despite some more outdated principles that remained in society as a whole, X-Com was a surprisingly accepting spec ops group, especially as it had none of the fraternisation rules that were embedded in the traditional militaries she came from. As Erin was reduced to a stuttering, blushing mess in response, Kumiko noted with some amusement she didn't outright say no to the implied offer.

"You two can work out the details for your date later, for now Erin needs to spill. I have been selected to help in the next round of testing with Ghost on some new toys he's come up with, and I want to know what to do to avoid making the Commander take me off the rota." Alessandra's comment was typically quick-witted, and made Erin blush even more before she began to gain control of herself slowly, though Kumiko was surprised Alessandra had made the list for R&D testing.

She didn't know all the details, but she knew well over 70% of the base's personnel had applied to assist in the testing, and so far only 3 people had taken part in more than the most basic of tests. Those had been Erin, herself and a trainee named Murali Omar, though Kumiko got the feeling he had primarily been chosen to allow the two of them a break between strike missions. The fact that three of her team had now been selected above everyone else would have the others decrying favouritism, but as the pieces start to come together in Kumiko's head she thought that perhaps it was merely pragmatism of the man making the choices.

"I-I, well, Ghost's gonna kill me." Erin's doomsday type comment merely confirmed Kumiko's suspicions, both about the training exercises and the R&D research 'group', but she didn't say anything to break the young woman's resolve to speak.

"The Commander and I were waiting with Ha-Ghost after he finished his painting, the Commander wanted my views on the new aliens we had encountered in Denmark." Sure, that was obviously the main reason the two women had stayed in the same room as Ghost for such a discussion.

Kumiko barely stopped herself smirking at the obvious half-truth Erin had just uttered, the other two women far less successful as Grace seemed to only just hold in a comment.

"He spoke to us and said we didn't need to wait with him, as the painting needed two hours to dry before he could move it. When I asked why he was waiting here then, rather than joining us in the Squad Room or something, I may have joked that no-one was going to steal it or anything…" Kumiko saw Grace's smirk disappear entirely as it became clear exactly _what_ had pissed the Commander off so much.

It wasn't exactly a secret, some of the attempts to obtain some of Harry's hair, equipment or other items had been so obvious even she had noticed and intervened. And Kumiko knew that whilst she liked the mature but kind wizard, she had _nothing_ on the Commander's growing attachment to their newest 'contractor'. It was surprising she and Erin still got along so well, given their attachment to the same man, but Kumiko wasn't going to poke that particular hornet's nest with a 6 foot pole.

"Rodriguez is going to get us all dishonourably discharged. I mean, getting shot at by Alien's isn't what I would call 'fun', but it's a hell of a lot better than having to do it with normal military gear. Do you think if I walk in with you guys the Commander might only demote me to a trainee? You guys seem to be the favourites after all…" Grace was probably the most upset Kumiko had ever seen her, other than when Tomasz, Sabre team's sniper, had been killed on their last mission, but she couldn't dispute her conclusions.

As useful as an experienced alien hunting team was, they could be replaced eventually, especially with the new training facility and whatever improvements Shen could continue to create on that front. In comparison, Ghost was very much a once in a lifetime resource. If that wasn't bad enough his own backstory, what little he had told people and what the rumour mill had generated at least, made it clear that he could quite easily become a flight risk if they weren't careful.

"He didn't actually lodge a formal complaint, or at least he didn't whilst I was there, but the Commander took him off to meet the head Councilman not long after whilst we had our debriefing." That explained why Erin had asked for the debriefing to be held in that room, rather than the squad room, but Kumiko would have appreciated the heads up.

"Which merely means this was her taking out some of her displeasure on us and explains why the debrief is in the squad room, she's probably wanting to lay down the law whilst Ghost is MIA." That was a good point from Alessandra, and meant that they should probably get there sooner rather than later.

"In that case, let's double time it. The Commander's going to be pissed if she has to wait for us before she does whatever speech she is planning." The fact she also wanted to catch whatever fireworks Avenger was going to set off was merely an added bonus…

!"£$%^&*()_+

It was the first time Moira had entered the Squad Room for a week, as she would be the first to admit she wasn't the most sociable of people. She had already heard the stories about Harry kicking almost everyone out of it when he returned from Denmark though, so that he could 'give it a little bit of an upgrade', only allowing Shen and 3 of his engineers inside. One of the things that Moira was starting to appreciate about Harry was his ability to understate things when it came to his personal contributions.

Harry had obviously used the time he had on his personal trip well, the robust but basically equipped room that previously had space for about 15 people had been transformed into a hall almost three times the size, complete with bright walls, lighting and _entertainment_.

There were 3 massive TV's adorning the walls in the far half of the room, with DVD players and games consoles that in total must have cost at least £10,000, furnished with several chairs that were a mixture of antique and hi-tech. In the near half of the room, the area was split into a lounge area as it had been originally, and an area with two table tennis tables and a pinball machine.

The bit that would had eventually drawn Moira to the squad room was the drinks machine, which seemed to have 100 choices ranging from fresh juice to alcohol, and the three top of the line barista coffee machines all jammed in one corner of the room. Compared to the 'swill' she often heard the cafeteria coffee referred to as, the level of choice and quality Harry had made available was nothing short of divine.

To top it off, next to the door she had walked through was a white board, on which Harry had asked for suggestions/requests for him to pick up if he was 'out and about'. Moira decided not to add to the masses of scribbles already on the board, she could always ask him personally for some luxury items she hadn't even considered necessary when she had first joined X-Com, at least she could then insist on paying for it.

Moira was distracted from her musings about the moisturising cream her skin was literally dying for, by the arrival of the entire base security team, lead by a rather stony face Bradford, which from her calculations made it nearly 150 people now gathered in the expanded venue. As Commander Rayleigh stormed in from where she had been waiting by the doors, slamming them hard enough to make several people near them jump, Moira could tell that this wasn't going to be a happy 'meeting'.

"Before we start, I would like Skyhammer team, Dr's Vahlen, Shen and Faroq, Central Officer Bradford, Pilot's Hennessey and Chidike and Trainee Omar to stand over here." That… that was a very small list, and one that Moira had little trouble ascertaining the 'missing link' that connected them, something that made her smile.

Good, she had been discipling her own scientists when she had caught them trying to 'obtain samples' from the poor boy. Given their attempted excuses, it was clear the harassment was far more prolific than just some eager scientists. She had been intending to speak to Harry about it, but it seemed the Commander had finally found out what was going on.

As Moira made her way to where Commander Rayleigh had indicated, she could see the Commander's knuckles were white with how hard she was clenching her fists. The younger woman didn't even wait for Shen to finish fighting his way through the mass of people, before beginning what was undoubtedly one _blitzkrieg_ of a speech.

"Three days ago, the head Councilman of X-Com requested a meeting with myself and Operative Ghost, and I went along assuming that it was merely to introduce our first _friendly_ extraterrestrial to the man who pays all our cheques." Where as previously, Commander Rayleigh's face had been a neutral albeit steely look, it quickly progressed into a vicious snarl.

"What actually happened, was probably the single most humiliating experience I have ever been subjected to in my military career! Not only did it get revealed that my own command were disobeying my direct orders, harassing and stealing from someone who has done more for X-Com in the last month than any of you have done in a year. But it turned out, that the Big Man himself knew before I did!" Vahlen winced at the last point even as mutinous mutterings came from several different corners of the room, most notably from a furious looking Lieutenant Rodriguez as he came storming forward.

"And yet, despite all of his…" That was as far as the Lieutenant got in his attempt to retort before freezing as Commander Rayleigh pulled her pistol from her belt and had it pointing in his direction without the slightest hesitation.

"The only reason, and I mean the only reason, you haven't been relegated to target practice dummy for the rest of your miserable career Lieutenant, is because Ghost asked me _not_ to humiliate you or any of the others. It is a request I will gladly ignore, if you don't sit down and shut the fuck up." If the tension was heavy in the air before, the sound of the normally softly spoken woman swearing made it thick enough to choke someone.

The gun was a non-lethal variant of the Commander's sidearm, with 'stun' bullets she and Shen had developed with Harry and his magic, but it looked similar enough to the real thing that Moira doubted anyone would call Commander Rayleigh's bluff.

Rodriguez certainly didn't, as he moved back into the crowd with a frown, the man obviously noticing that the Commander had used the word ' _humiliate'_ rather than punish in what she had promised Ghost. The word choice was important, as it meant there was a terrifying amount of wriggle room in what she might unleash.

"If it weren't for the very real and very dangerous threat of an alien invasion over our heads, I would have pressed Ghost for details and discharged every single person he could remember harassing him, and I am deadly serious when I say this. Ghost has now been told to report ANY perceived harassment to me going forward, and for the next two weeks everyone that I did not call out is banned from this squad room."

That got a reaction, after 18 months of minimum supplies and entertainment, other than what they could drum up between themselves, the squad room had been an instant hit. It had already been getting to the point Moira had been concerned one or two of her scientists might end up slacking off to enjoy some leisure time. Commander Rayleigh's face turned into a predatory smirk at the gasps and whispering, and gestured magnanimously around the room.

"So you don't like Ghost or his abilities, and think we should lock him and dissect him, but when I stop you playing on his toys _that's_ too far? As some of you don't seem to know, everything in this room was bought by the man many of you openly distrust, and not a penny came from X-Com's official budget. Since Ghost is too polite to make an issue of such blatant double standards I will. Shen and his team will construct another squad room near here, which will be the same as this was originally, that is currently what you deserve."

There were cries of dismay, and Moira saw more than one person glance desperately at the coffee machines, whilst there were other cries protesting individuals being innocent.

"And, given I can't seem to trust my own strike teams in relation to Ghost or his abilities, I have already ordered Officer Bradford and his security team to collect all modified weapons and gear. These will be stockpiled for R&D purposes, since the general belief is that Ghost cannot be trusted." Commander Rayleigh ignored the calls from around the room, her eyes fixed on Lieutenant Rodriguez as she spat out the last sentence, in a tone so acidic in nature Moira almost believed she was looking at a Thin Man.

"So you will let us all get killed, because your boy toy is unhappy? Glad to see your keeping your efforts focused on defending Earth, Commander." It seemed that Rodriguez was not prepared to let that go without a fight, though Moira could see disapproving looks from across the crowd as the man almost spat out the Commander's rank.

"No Trainee, I am letting a bunch of close minded bigots get an idea of what X-Com will look like without Operative Ghost and others around. I have already had the agreement of the Council, that if the attempts to antagonise Ghost do not cease here and now, there will be consequences. One of these consequences would be transferring Skyhammer team, Operative Ghost and myself from X-Com, to form a sister organisation along with all the tech he helped develop. I argued that given the nature of the threat facing us, as well as the new opportunities, building from the ground up would make our efforts far more streamlined."

The announcement caught everyone by surprise, and there was so much implied in Commander Rayleigh's threat, that nearly everyone missed the demotion Rodriguez had just suffered. Whilst it would be a difficult task to restart the organisation again, which Moira was already theorising about given she would be handing in a transfer request the same _hour_ such an event occurred, it was clear by the Commander's face that this was no idle threat.

Given what Harry had told them about some of the spells he and his mysterious partner knew, if they did create a second base somewhere, it would probably be more effective and more secure than this one was. And, probably easier to construct as well.

"The ban starts in five minutes, which is when Shen will be activating the iris lock to restrict access in _or_ out. So I would go work out whether you want to act like the professionals you all claim to be, or whether you want to start praying that the Aliens don't decide to launch an attack for the next 6-8 months. Your choice." And with that, Commander Rayleigh stepped down from the chair she had been stood on and stalked out of the room at a furious pace, leaving Moira to laugh as Bradford and three members of the security team moved to by the door.

Given the grumbles and glares being directed not only at the Commander's back but other people in the crowd, who had undoubtedly done what the Commander had been talking about, Moira got the feeling that there would be significant peer pressure to let up on Harry going forward.

Giving someone a large number of luxuries, and then shaming them and taking them away for the actions of others, tended to have a remarkable effect on people's attitudes after all. As tempted as she was to gloat, and nab an espresso that she was quite literally thirsting for, Moira instead moved towards the door, in an attempt to follow the Commander.

Someone had to calm her down before she actually did carry out one of her threats, and chances are Harry would turn up if the two of them were together for a while…

[]{}#%^*+=

Something had changed on the base, and Harry wasn't entirely sure that he liked it. All of a sudden people were treating him nicer, and he liked the fact that Sabre team weren't trying to follow him everywhere, but the mood of the entire place had dropped like a Gryffindor's grades in Snape's potions class. Admittedly he had taken a couple of days off, the conversations with Azrael and Kate had taken quite the toll on him and Harry still had to get used to constant social contact again. But, as he walked through the base to Kate's rooms, it felt like someone had died.

Admittedly, he could have just apparated to outside her door, but as Hermione had pointed out he was becoming too reliant on the magical form of travel. It was something he was going to ask Skyhammer team about, as he no longer did Quidditch or anything else to keep in shape, but that could wait until he got introducing Hermione to Kate out of the way.

It had pleased the portrait no end that he was going to ask Kate to keep the extra portrait in her room, though he had been keen to express that it was for security purposes rather than what she was imagining, not that such protests seemed to help in anyway.

"Excuse me, Operative Ghost?" Harry was drawn out of his thoughts by the mention of his code name.

He found himself looking at four X-Com members that he didn't recognise at all, though he could tell from their uniforms that they were part of the site team, rather than security or a Strike Team trainee.

The one who had spoken, a tall and slim man of African descent with neck length dreadlocks, seemed incredibly nervous as the others all stood behind him. Harry knew that he had something of a negative image on base, not at all helped by the rumours some of the less accepting staff were spreading, but he didn't think he was that intimidating.

"What can I do for you, Officer Jabari?" Politeness always helped in situations like this, or at least that's what Hermione had drilled into him for 7 years at Hogwarts.

"I, er I mean we realise that you were never given an official X-Com induction package and uniform. As the logistical team in charge of such matters, it is something we realise that we should remedy as soon as possible. We don't want you to feel like we are treating you differently or anything…" If Harry wasn't suspicious before, he was definitely on edge now, something HAD changed and he had the sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with the woman he was on his way to see.

"Of course, I am just going to see the Commander now, but after that I should be able to spend some time with you guys. Where do you want to meet, the Squad room?" Obviously this was the wrong thing to say, as two of the women behind Officer Jabari winced and the man's smile became even more forced , but then their expressions seemed to change a few seconds later and the smiles returned once more a little more genuinely.

"I'm afraid you will have to ask the Commander about the squad room Operative Ghost. But if you contact the Operations centre, they should be able to put you into contact with us when you are done, at least until we get your base comms unit setup." With that agreed, at least until he could talk to Kate and find out what in Merlin's name was going on, Harry responded to the salute they all gave him as best he could and started down the corridor once more.

"I told you he had nothing…" One of the other Officers started speaking, but Harry wasn't interested enough to stay within earshot, the answers he needed were only a few corridors away after all.

The 'Induction team' seemed to have been the prompt people needed to approach him, more than a dozen other people who he had barely spoken to before attempting to strike a conversation with him. Just as he was starting to feel a little overwhelmed, his saviours came from a rather unexpected quarter, a geared up Alessandra approaching with the female member of Sabre team, the two strike team members dispersing the growing crowd with a few short words and their general presence.

"One of you want to fill me in? All of a sudden, I've gone from the man with creepy powers that no-one wants to talk to, to the star of the local football team or something." His analogy caused the Sabre team woman to chuckle before she stuck her hand out.

"I don't think I've introduced myself to you properly Sir, and I know you have some reservations about my team judging by the way your face changed when you saw me. Corporal Grace Kelly, please don't judge me based on the rest of Sabre team?" There was nothing but complete honesty in her face as she finished with her semi-plea, and Harry knew he wasn't good at hiding his emotions at the best of times, so he wasn't surprised she had noticed his caution.

"Harry Potter, definitely not Sir, though it seems everyone is determined to refer to me as Ghost these days. Nice attempt at dodging the question, but I suppose I am on my way to see the Commander anyway, so I will just ask her…" Accepting the offered hand to shake, Harry saw Alessandra's face scrunch up a little when he mentioned discussing things with Kate.

"Si-Harry, I think it would be best for the rest of us poor souls if you didn't ask the Commander. We can fill you in later with the rest of my team, but I don't think the Commander would take people's attitude adjustments in a positive manner right now." Harry could now guess that Kate had followed through on her promise to stop people trying to study him, though given people's reactions it was obvious that it had been a rather dramatic response.

"So the Commander's pissed for something I didn't do, yet you want me to avoid telling her about suspicious circumstances around base for your benefit… I don't see where the benefit is for me here, lying to the Commander if she asks is not what I consider a good idea." But just because he wouldn't want to stress Kate out by mentioning it, especially if the others didn't think it would be well received, didn't mean Harry was going to miss such an obvious chance to wrangle something from the pair of them for it.

"I am sure that everyone on base would be appreciative of not being subjected to the Commander's displeasure again? I didn't think that would work. I don't know about Alessi, but I am more than happy to let you name your price, I don't think the Commander would take my approach here in the most positive of lights." Harry pretended to think about it as they finished their walk to the corridor leading to the Commander's quarters, he already had a good idea of what to ask for but making people wait was something he had come to enjoy since defeating Voldemort.

"I'll get back to you, we can negotiate what you owe me for my silence over a cup of tea afterwards. I warn you though, if this is the pair of you setting me up…" He left the promise of retribution instead, people tended to be more creative in their own minds when thinking of punishments than he was after all.

Grace seemed to want to say something, but changed her mind with a shake of her head, the two of them stopping before they reached the corridor itself, obviously not wanting to head down to the Commander's room if they could avoid it. Taking the silent goodbye as what it was, Harry offered a rather brief salute before he headed down the corridor, hoping that the general view that Kate was angry was a little exaggerated.

Reaching the door, Harry pressed his left index finger in the scanner by the door, before stepping back to allow the camera above the door to get a good view of him. The security measures had been installed whilst he had still been an 'unknown' and Harry had argued for their maintenance and upgrading even after he had been revealed. The next Alien that might infiltrate the base almost certainly wouldn't be as nice as he had been after all, so the security measures would pay for their rather expensive price tag if they caught them before they could do serious damage.

After a few seconds there was a buzz, signalling the defensive turrets had been disarmed, and the door opened almost silently a moment later. To Harry's surprise it wasn't just Kate in the room, Moira giving him a warm smile and a wave as he walked in.

"Hello Harry, we were starting to get worried, disappearing for most of three days without any form of contact tends to make people think you have gone MIA." Kate was tired, which as Harry was beginning to find made her comments significantly more sarcastic than her already quick witted manner contributed to.

Though, as she looked up from the documents she and Moira had been looking at, she offered him a smirk at least.

"Sorry Kate, Moira. In my defence, you have to realise I have spent most of the last 5 years with only an animated portrait for company, I have found I rather enjoy quiet time between all of this…" He thought he had mentioned his self imposed isolation before now, or at least implied it enough that it would have been understood, though judging by the worried glance the two women shared he obviously hadn't.

"And whose fault is that? I told you to at least try and get out a little more, you only left the Chamber to go to our grave site most of the time for Merlin's sake." Hermione's voice startled Moira and Kate, prompting Harry to reach into his uniform pocket and pull out the item he had been intending to show off.

Shrunk to the size of a pocket notebook, the portrait of the X-Com Command Centre retained much of the functionality the real life version did, if Hermione's ecstatic investigations over the last two days were to be believed. Seeing a blank space of wall to the left of Kate's desk, Harry walked over and placed the portrait at about chest height, before stepping back and waving the Elder Wand.

"Ah, that's better, those shrunken portraits are always so constricting." Hermione had gone to the effort of dressing up for the occasion it seemed, dressed in a modified version of the dress she had worn to the Yule Ball, obviously she had thought ahead and had a wardrobe 'painted in' to her original frame.

"Incredible, when you implied there was another from your world, I never imagined…" Moira seemed to take a few moments to get over her awe, before stepping forward with a cautious but interested look on her face.

"My name is Dr Moira Vahlen, I don't know what Harry has told you about us Ms?" Hermione gave quick curtsy, but as her eyes rose to meet Moira's, there was the tell tale glint of amusement in her eyes.

"From what I remember, you are the one who threatened to torture and dissect him after he was poisoned. Whilst Harry tends to forgive quite easily, I am a little more judgemental." How much of the stern tone in Hermione's voice was serious was anyone's guess, the witch had always been good a holding a grudge when her ire was truly roused after all.

The reminder of the threat at the first 'face to face' meeting Harry had with her certainly seemed to throw Moira off her stride a bit, her glance in his direction for help caught by every person in the room. Kate chuckled humourlessly, drawing herself up to her full height and levelling a unintimdated look in Hermione's direction.

"When it comes to threats and harassment of your friend, we have far more serious problems that Dr Vahlen. In fact, Harry and her get along _very closely_ now, not unlike him and a select group of other women on base…" Harry was impressed, even as he resisted the urge to blush as Hermione turned his way with an arched eyebrow, that was certainly one way to distract Hermione from expressing her displeasure at the way Moira treated him.

"Really Harry? And how is it you haven't mentioned much of this to me? A girl could get jealous…"

And this was exactly why he had been nervous about introducing Hermione to everyone. Not that they would fight, but that they would _gossip…_

 **A/N: I've been building to it for a while, but dissension in the ranks is one of the most dangerous things in an organisation like X-Com, so the Commander needed to put it down and put it down hard.**

 **I don't want to make Sabre team into my 'bashing' squad, hence the introduction of Grace, but I do want to point out some reasoning. 'Avenger' Rodriguez de Cote would have been the only survivor of the tutorial mission without Harry's presence, he certainly doesn't owe his life to Harry like Kumiko did.**

 **His team also hasn't served with Harry yet against the Alien's, and that lack of bonding in the fires of combat means the slaughter of their team in that first training session still stings quite badly. The loss of one of their own, whilst Harry was on base rather than helping them, will only feed the animosity.**

 **I'll flesh Sabre team out some more over the coming chapters, now I've taken their toys away they are really going to struggle against the Alien's, and despite the Commander's resolve on the matter Harry won't be happy when he finds out.**

 **On a more serious note, I have to offer an apology now. I have recently bought a house, which all of a sudden means I have suddenly got to worry about this whole 'being an adult and managing my budget' thing. I know I don't post regularly, but this is me letting you guys know that that rate is going to drop significantly going forward.**

 **I did set up a .on account, but I don't think what I offer on here is going to be worth people spending money on. Though, if you want to check it out, it is the same username as I use here. Perhaps I am being overly pessimistic.**

 **I have muscled through all of my working stories to provide you with a new chapter for each of them, I hope you all enjoy them, and apologies for the bad news.**


	10. Instant Karma

**Millstatt Am See- South Eastern Austria, Just before 2 am**

 **Hermann Moser, Maintenance Technician**

It had been a long day, and Hermann knew that the large amount of beer and shots that he had downed at Pieter's birthday celebration would make tomorrow even longer. He stumbled to one knee as his head swam, the cool tarmac of the road taking a moment to pierce the alcohol fuelled dullness of his mind.

Despite a scrape on his jeans that he knew he would regret the next morning, the road reminded him...

"But, 'I'm on the highway to hell' anyway, so why not live a little before going down…" Hermann chuckled at his own joke about the song playing as he left the bar.

He continued singing to himself, weaving somewhat unsteadily down the Main Street of Millstatt am See. The small town in Southern Austria wasn't exactly plagued by hordes of traffic at night, so Hermann wasn't worried about getting in anyone's way.

Given it was only March, the unseasonably heavy rains had caused the town to get less visitors than usual, but tonight the crescent moon was easily visible amidst the almost cloud free night sky. But, Hermann's mind slowly started to say through the pleasant dullness brought on by the alcohol, there was something out of place even given the lack of drunken tourists.

"A power cut… Or perhaps Mayor Shulz' is trying to save money again." Other than the light of the moon and stars, most of the village was in complete darkness, which given the need for street lighting was odd even to Hermann in his inebriated state.

Shaking it off, as it wouldn't become his issue until he at least made it home, Hermann staggered another twenty yards before he froze on instinct. It took a few moments for his mind to register what his instincts had reacted to, the sounds of scratching and… Skittering?

It was a noise that Hermann had never heard before, and as he tried to locate where the sound was coming from he found himself even more confused. Turning to the building he could hear the sounds coming from, Hermann couldn't see anything that could be causing the noise from in front of the house.

In fact, it sounded like the noises were coming from abo…

A moment later there was a wet slicing sound as a body was slammed into the floor. Poor Hermann barely had time to realise he had been impaled through the chest, before the light faded from his eyes.

Moments later, the body was dragged from where it fell off into the shadows, the only sign of what had happened being a bloody patch on the grass of the lakeshore…

Hermann's blood mingled with the light rain, which started to fall a few minutes later, joining the dozen other bloodstains that now covered the ground in the same area...

[]{}#%^*+=

 **X-Com Headquarters- Commander's Quarters, 3 hours after Hermione's 'introduction'**

 **Harry Potter, Operative Ghost**

"And then there was the time that Harry decided to try and recreate the botched polyjuice potion that I made in my second year. I think it was as much out of boredom, rather than 'to see if the benefits of partial animal hybridisation could be replicated in a controlled and temporary manner'. He spent at least three months looking like a human/owl hybrid, before we were able to create a stable version that only lasted an hour…"

Harry had given up having his head in his hands due to embarrassment, his face so red that he honestly thought he might stay that colour forever. Hermione had very quickly gotten over her anger at Dr Vahlen, at least for the time being, the two descending into the stories of Hogwarts with a vigour that amused/terrified Harry in almost equal measure.

There had been an alert shortly after he had first revealed Hermione to the pair of them, but Kate had insisted she would deal with it, leaving the three of them to give her instructions to Bradford before returning about twenty minutes later.

"Fascinating, and you are sure that there is no way we can work to replicate these 'potions'? Whilst I realise that many of the more… Exotic ingredients wouldn't be available here, if we could reproduce even one of these mixtures, the potential insights into how magic functions would be incredible." The level of fervour in Dr Vahlen's voice seemed to even shock Hermione slightly, the portrait silent for a few moments before turning to him with a questioning look.

"Is that what I look like when I get really into something?" Harry nodded, a small smile crossing his face, as his mind subconsciously brought up the memories of Hermione reacting in almost the same manner on more than one occasion.

"I imagine that's what we all looked like at one stage, the wonder of magic in a positive light…" Harry wished he could still feel that way about magic, to be able to work from nothing and create something wonderful in an instant.

But he had seen the darker side of magic too many times, where beauty and life could be torn from this world just as quickly...

 _Ginny's smiling face as they walked through Diagon Alley…_

 _A small child, blonde hair swaying in the wind, holding up a small bracelet of wild flowers…_

 _Black flames erupting, even as Harry noticed the child's blank gaze, screams filling the air…_

 _Ashes, spreading in the wind, charred and burnt red hair the only remains..._

Breaking from the memory with a start, Harry immediately forced himself to his feet without consciously thinking about it, Dr Vahlen and Kate starting slightly as he managed to relax himself from falling fully into a combat stance.

"Ginny?" It was a sign, both that Hermione knew him too well, as well as the fact that he had these lapses far too often.

"Yeah, sorry. Bad memories." There was several moments of silence after that, made more awkward by the fact that Harry could see Dr Vahlen struggling to not ask what was, undoubtedly, the first of many questions she had in mind.

He tried to think of something to say, a distraction to take attention away from being asked about the darkest parts of his past, but his mind was blank...

"Commander, report to the Command Centre immediately! Sabre team is under attack!" Never before, and probably never again, would Harry be so happy to hear Bradford's voice over the base tannoy.

"I'll take us, save five minutes… See you later Hermione, Moira." The portrait smiled at being addressed first, but as Harry turned away to look at a surprisingly nervous Kate, he missed the frown that appeared at the use of Dr Vahlen's first name.

"Is there, is there anything I need to worry about?" Harry suddenly remembered that this would in fact be the first time that Kate had experienced apparation, unlike the entire research team and Erin, who seemed to actually enjoy the sensation.

"Wrap an arm around mine Milady, I will ensure that nothing happens, gentleman's honour." It was definitely overplaying his British stereotype, but as Kate relaxed slightly whilst grabbing his arm firmly with both her own, it was clear she didn't mind.

Whilst he only needed to grab someone to apparate them, it always calmed those not used to apparation more if they were able to gain a firmer grip themselves.

A flick of his holly wand later and the two of them disappeared with the smallest of cracks, appearing on the Command Deck, in the 'magic circle' that had been painted for him to apparate to.

"Commander, Sabre team arrived as back up for the Austrian army unit that was investigating the stories just before dawn, but the entire army unit had been massacred having barely entered the town. Sabre team was checking the bodies when, well…" Bradford gestured up at the main screen before turning and typing into his console for a few moments.

Helmet cam footage, from the feed of Sabre team's rookie given Harry could see the other three members on the screen, though the man seemed to be struggling to deal with the aftermath of the attack around them. To be fair to the man, it was pretty brutal, limbs and blood scattered around like gruesome confetti.

"No signs of an explosive trap or even projectiles, which makes sense as the explosive force required to cause this would have levelled the nearby buildings." Sergeant Rodriguez seemed to be even more pissed off than usual, though his analysis was pretty accurate.

Harry stopped paying attention to Sabre team though, knowing that Bradford hadn't started from this particular point for no reason. A quickly mental count, as the feed continued to roll and the rookie collected fallen assault rifles, gave him a guess of 6-7 bodies scattered in what he guessed was the main road into the town.

"There are bodies missing…" The fact that Rodriguez and he spoke at the same time showed Harry was at least on the track, having counted at least twice as many weapons discarded where they fell.

"Survivors?" The question from the Rookie, Obi if Harry's memory of a quick glance through the man's personnel file was correct, caused a disbelieving snort from Rodriguez whilst both he and Kate shook their heads.

"With their main weapons here? Unlikely Rookie. And because the Commander is letting her feelings get the better of her, we aren't any better armed." Another mention of what happened whilst he had been distracted, but Harry's attention was on the flicker of movement at the side of the camera feed, he could ask the others for details later.

The camera didn't catch more than a blur, something shifting from one piece of cover to the next, but that was enough to make up Harry's mind. Whatever did this was fast, at least as large as a human and had already killed at least 15 soldiers from what he could count.

"Are the others ready? I can portkey us to their location using the key stones in Sabre team's armour." Going through a quick mental checklist, as Grace suddenly shouted about movement in front of them and the feed turned to see almost three dozen people staggering towards them, before he noticed everyone in the room staring at him.

"What?"

[]{}#%^*+=

 **Millstatt Am See, 20 minutes after the X-Com HQ alert**

 **Grace Kelly, X-Com Sabre Team Corporal**

"Another group!" Fahid's call barely got Grace's attention, the blood loss from the stump that had once been her left hand, made it difficult for her to concentrate.

Rodriguez' caution regarding unknown combatants had paid off on first contact, though given the rather gruesome condition of the 'zombies' that attacked them, Grace liked to think they would have guessed something was off.

They had been mowing down the walking corpses, after Fahid's initial approach had proved they were hostile, when there was a scream from behind them. Even now, the memory was terrifyingly fresh in her mind...

 _Even as she had turned around, Grace grabbed the lightened and enhanced pistol she had 'forgotten' to hand back in from its back holster, no one screamed like THAT for fun._

 _As the creature, having impaled Obi through the chest with one of its single pointed talons before discarding him still screaming to the side, threw itself at her, Grace guessed that her act of ill discipline wasn't such a bad plan after all._

 _The thing, easily 6 foot tall and looking like a horrific cross between an alien spider and Edward Scissorhands, was terrifyingly quick and agile. It closed the gap to her in the time it took her to finish drawing her sidearm, the assault rifle fire from her team barely slowing its assault as it kinked and dodged with supernatural ease..._

The creature had taken her right hand at the wrist with its scything charge, before two .50 calibre rounds from her 9 MM. burst its head open like a very gross watermelon. But, with Obi torn apart by Zombies before they could reach him, the situation had gone from bad to FUBAR remarkably quickly.

The shambling noises of the walking corpses approaching her brought Grace back to reality, and she made a snap decision.

"I've got these three, cover Rodriguez!" As Fahid reluctantly moved to help their former leader clear their route forward, Grace raised her pistol a little unsteadily to point it at the nearest of the three zombies.

Firing three shots as quickly as she dared, Grace frowned when only two of the zombies collapsed, the third only losing an arm just below the shoulder as it staggered backwards. This injury was affecting her more than she thought…

The zombie groaned for a moment and then resumed staggering forward, before a fourth shot took it's head off with a meaty squelch. Grace breathed a sigh of relief for a moment, before a skittering sound slowly became more and more audible, the sound filling her with dread.

"Creeper!" It wasn't the most inventive name for the assassin/stalker alien Grace thought, as she tried to draw a bead on the creature leaping from the rooftops to the street in front of her, though the poor naming wouldn't matter unless they got out of here alive.

Her first shot missed as the creature skittered forwards, the second round grazing it's chest as it got within ten metres and _leapt_. Luckily, the last two creepers had carried out similar attacks, so Grace had already had her pistol tracking it's trajectory. She fired, the Creeper's left talon explosively separated from the things body…

 _Click._

The noise, as she pulled the trigger again, made Grace despair for the moment she had to spare before the thing finished its leap, it's mouth spread wide as it unleashed a ear piercing screech…

Straight into an earthen fist? For a moment, Grace honestly thought she was hallucinating, her mind playing tricks on her in her last moments of life. Then she felt a hand land on her shoulder, the world twisted and Grace found herself not in Millstatt am See but back on base, surrounded by the Command Deck staff.

"Corporal Kelly? Jesus! Get a medical team here now!" Bradford was next to her in moments, loosening the torquinet Rodriquez had put just below her right elbow.

The returning feeling in her lower arm brought with it pain and dizziness, Grace barely able to remain focussed as Commander Rayleigh stood in front of her.

"Corporal, what happened out there? We lost contact with you after the first sighting of the Fallen civilians…" There was another slight crack, before there was a sudden wet thud next to Grace's collapsed form.

"It, it was a bad first day to return to basics Commander…" Before she could say anymore, there was shouting from somewhere behind her.

"Get out of the way. We need to get her to surgery now! Bradford, you grab her hand, Harry was nice enough to send it back, so we better not waste the chance to try and save it!" Oh, so that's what the other sound was, good to…

"We're losing her, get me a shot of…" As darkness descended, Grace decided she could work out what she missed later, after a brief rest…

[]{}#%^*+=

 **Outskirts of Millstatt Am See, An hour after X-Com HQ alert**

 **Harry Potter, Operative Ghost**

"Well this explains why we lost contact with HQ, and we just thought that the Commander was ignoring us, nice to see she sent her pet project to save our asses…" After the discovery that Kate had banned the strike teams from using any of their new equipment and weapons amongst other things, Harry had not been in the best of moods by the time he had arrived on site at Millstatt.

Apparating to a location he only had a picture for was even harder over such a large distance, and thankfully he didn't splinch himself. Finding the team hadn't been hard either, the gunfire and shouting enough to quite possibly wake the dead. After sending Grace back to X-Com, and summoning her 'extra' limb to turn that into a Portkey as well, Harry helped the other two fall back to where their Skyranger had landed.

"These Creepers really are something else, and if that weren't enough the damn zombies…" Fahid caught himself as he finished gathering the largest remains of what had been the Skyranger's pilot and two aircrew into a single pile.

Given the lack of gunfire, or other signs of conflict, the only positive spin Harry could even begin to conjure up was that at least the three of them seemed to have died quickly. The interior of the Skyranger was a similar mess, the walls and floors ripped open and various pieces of wiring torn from inside it.

"We are going to need backup if we are going to deal with these bastards effectively…" Harry's muttered comment was followed by the disbelieving snort from Rodriquez.

"What, you mean you can't just wave that magic stick of yours and come up with a solution? And here I thought you were our answer to ever…" Harry's frayed temper snapped for a moment at the constant antagonism from the Sabre team squad leader, and the Ecuadorian found himself pinned against the side of the destroyed Skyranger almost a foot in the air a moment later.

"I don't know what your problem is with me Sergeant, and to be honest I'm not sure if I want to know. But, in the middle of an outbreak that has overtaken a town in a single night? That is really not the time to be throwing some kind of temper tantrum. Now, I am going to give you a Portkey, and you are going to explain to Command everything you know about these 'Creepers'. We will need army support to quarantine this entire region, until we can be sure that we have dealt with every single one of these bastards, and we will need Skyhammer team and some rookies to deal with the main groups of these zombies."

For once Rodriquez didn't seem to have a witty comeback prepared, the man cowed in the face of Harry's anger, merely nodding as best he could.

"While you are doing that, we will be retaking the area you first fought in, once the Corporal here has suited up of course. And then, when this situation is under control, I am going to have _**words**_ with _all of you_ …" Harry pulled a few items from his pocket, three of which he gave to Rodriquez, tapping the third piece of sectioned rope to send Rodriquez swirling away in the traditional Portkey manner.

The fourth he dropped to the ground, a wave of the Elder Wand cancelling the shrinking spell he had applied with a little too much zeal to one of the Exo-suits. He had quickly retrieved the suit from storage, when he had been filled in on Kate-The Commander's attempt to 'help' him.

"I have no idea if these Creeper things are actually intelligent enough to be working with the other Aliens we have encountered, or if they are just the space equivalent of terror weapons. But if a couple of them stop 'harvesting' and spread further afield…" Harry had experience with Inferni and other dark ritual creations, given Voldemort's love of 'The Dark' and the macabre such things were almost normal for Harry by the battle of Hogwarts, but these aliens took terror generation to a whole new level.

Inferni didn't have the capacity to turn their victims into other Inferni after all…

"Get suited up Corporal, we have a lot of work to do." To his credit, Fahid didn't say a word to the contrary, quickly following the procedure to get himself properly situated inside the exo-suit.

After the start up procedure, Fahid spent a moment grabbing his weapons and some extra ammunition from the remnants of the Skyranger.

"Locked and loaded Ghost, awaiting your orders." There was a respectful tone there that hadn't been there before, and Harry hoped this would be a more long term thing, rather than just out of fear because he was currently pissed off.

"Lead off then Corporal, the exo-suit's armour should make the walking corpses much less of a threat, but the talons on those Creepers can probably get through it if they try hard enough. I will do my best to deal with them before they can get close, but we will need to be cautious about ambushes." But for now, Harry would work with what he had, especially given their current problems.

Even if the Creepers _weren't_ psionically linked like the other aliens they had encountered so far, they showed enough animal cunning with their ambush tactics that they couldn't be thought of as stupid or simple opponents by any means. A wave of his wand later, and dozens of small birds were flying above and around them, each charmed with a simple 'attack anything not human' mechanism.

There wasn't a single local animal in the area to worry about setting them off accidentally, it seemed that the animals had enough sense to get the hell away from these Creepers when they arrived. Or they served as pre-town assault snacks…

"Walkers ahead, at least half a dozen, preparing to engage." Fahid's comment brought Harry out of his thoughts, another wave of his wand sending half of the bird constructs shooting forward over the Walkers' position, the constructs instantly shifting into a series of dive bombing attacks on something up in the trees.

"Creeper too, and it's going to be pissed in a minute!" There was a screeching noise that resonated through the small patch of woodland that they were in, before a Creeper came leaping from the trees, talons swinging around viciously at the attacking constructs.

The talons caught at least one of the constructs with each pass, but the others were doing a successful job of distracting the thing as Harry lined up his shot. The accuracy of a bombarda, over a distance of more than thirty metres, was questionable at best. So, Harry wasn't too upset when his spell caught one of the Creeper's swinging talons, rather than full in the chest.

Even if his aim hadn't been perfect, the end result was pretty much the same, the things screeching increasing to an almost deafening level as it's limb was violently separated from its body.

"SCREEE!" The wound seemed to infuriate the thing, skittering forward with terrifying speed, dodging the two piercing spells Harry fired in its direction as if they were flying through treacle.

The amount of purple blood, rapidly escaping from the remnants of the Creepers shoulder and splattering the trees and undergrowth, was more than enough to make it clear it was a mortal wound. But as the Creeper almost bisected the first transfigured wolf in its path, which Harry created with several quick flicks of his wand to try and slow the Creeper down, it was clear that the Creeper wanted to take something down with it as it died.

"Holy shit!" Fahid's cry was mirrored mentally by Harry, the Creeper mutilating the remaining five wolves in as many seconds, the screeching still ringing in his ears as the Creeper leapt in his direction...

Right into the fist of Fahid's Exo-suit, the enhanced strength of the powered armour ending the Creepers screeching with a bone snapping punch, the Creeper's body sailing through the air to slam into a tree a moment later.

"Thanks…" Harry spun round to deal with any stragglers that Fahid might have left whilst saving him, but all that was left were mangled corpses scattered around the area, a testament of how useful the exo-suit was if nothing else.

"If you get killed, we're all as good as fucked, today's proved that. Perhaps even Avenger will believe that now, though I doubt it…" Fahid's tone wasn't friendly, the man sweeping the area once more with his shotgun, but it was clear he wasn't going to give Harry anymore problems right now.

"We better keep moving, we need to get somewhere more open before the others arrive." Skyhammer team would be using the other portkeys, which he had sent back with Rodriguez, which were keyed to the specialised wardstones in the exo-suit armour Fahid was wearing.

Because the location wasn't fixed, the magic required for the link to function effectively put a heavy strain on the wardstones, so at best the wardstones would only last two or three 'jumps' before the magical strain shattered them. But given the utility such devices provided, Harry wasn't going to complain too much about having to regularly replace them.

"We are nearly at the initial contact point. If you can, I would like… We need to recover Obi, or what's left of him… His uncle works in the maintenance team, was the one who recommended him." There was an edge to Fahid's voice now, and Harry could tell the man was struggling to maintain his composure.

"Of course, we will make sure he can rest peacefully, and that _all_ of these poor souls get proper burials." Harry had dealt with enough death in his life to have set his moral code in stone regarding the dead.

And if the Commander tried to order the corpses be examined any more thoroughly that necessary for a typical examination… She'd find out _exactly_ how far he was prepared to go on the matter...

!"£$%^ &*()_+

 **X-Com Headquarters Council Communication Chamber, The following evening**

 **Kate Rayleigh, X-Com Commander**

"Two and a half thousand dead civilians, over a thousand more that we have yet to find or identify, and forty dead or injured military personnel. The only possible upside to all this, this terror attack, is that the aliens seemed determined to stick to the town and its surroundings. If one or two had slipped away…" Finishing her update to the head Council member, Kate had to resist the urge to yawn that was building in the back of her throat.

It had been a long 24 hours for everyone at X-Com, and from his somewhat slumped shoulders, it was clear even Azrael had been hard at work dealing with the aftermath of the latest Alien attack.

"The results of the Aliens spreading would have been catastrophic, not that the actual results are a resounding success for X-Com Commander. I know that there is no way that you could have responded any faster to the attack, and in many ways we were fortunate that the town was in Central Europe, but the rest of the Council have questions about the… Execution of the mission."

Jane didn't react physically, it was hardly the first time that her commanding officer had questioned her choices on a mission.

"I made the choices I felt were pertinent to maintaining control of discipline in X-Com's ranks, and in an attempt to keep positive relations with one of our key allies sir." Short, to the point and remaining objective, it was the best way to deal with being criticised by the higher ups.

"And how is 'keeping positive relations' going?" It was a verbal kidney shot, delivered in the Council member's usual controlled manner, and another sign that the man had other ways of getting information from the base other than through their reports…

 _A flash of light from behind her signalled the return of the away team, as she coordinated the military cordon of Millstatt, with the NATO forces rapidly deployed to support X-Com's work. The flash was a sign that Har- Operative Ghost wasn't trying to be subtle, and as she turned around to face him Kate could see why._

 _Between the blood, dirt and other 'questionable' materials he had no doubt come into contact with in Millstatt's sewer system, Ghost looked like he had been caught in a stampede of Wildebeest and only just gotten out alive. Corporal Fahid didn't look much better, though Skyhammer team and the newly formed Seeker team seemed a little less battle worn._

 _Ghost didn't speak, though the stone like expression on his face spoke volumes as he threw something in her direction, before teleporting away with a loud crack. She caught the items thrown in her direction reflexively, but for the moment her focus was entirely on the recently departed young wizard._

" _Officer Bradford, you have control, I need to…" Even as she started giving her orders Kate was moving towards the doors to the Command Deck, she wouldn't find Ghost if he didn't want to be found, but she doubted he would remove Hermione's portrait._

 _But, before she made it a dozen steps, Sergeant Kumiko stepped into her path and shook her head respectfully._

" _I wouldn't Commander, Harry really isn't going to want to talk right now…" Normally Kate wouldn't have let that stop her, but to her surprise the rest of Skyhammer team moved up behind their squad leader in silent agreement of her statement._

 _That grim solidarity made Kate realise exactly how bad things had gotten in Millstatt, given the loss of communications caused by Sabre transport's destruction, she only had the newly reinstated Sergeant Rodriguez's report to work off._

" _What, what happened out there…" Opening her fist and looking down at the items Ghost had thrown at her, Kate found herself looking at dog tags, and it didn't take a genius level intellect to work out who the four half tags belonged to._

 _The deaths of Trainee Obi, as well as pilot team Sabre were quite literally on her hands now. To make it worse, the fact that these were only half tags meant that Ghost had probably taken the other half with him, a sign that her decision had put those deaths on_ _ **his**_ _conscience as well._

" _Those Creepers, or the Alien bastards in charge, are sadistic beyond measure. They had all the children from Millstatt in reserve until we were storming the final sewer area… Harry had to deal with most of them before we even got into the room…" Kumiko was a hardened soldier, and what had happened had obviously shaken her to the core._

 _By God, what had it done to Harry?_

"Not, not well sir. I will be speaking with an asset after this meeting, who has an understanding of Operative Ghost's history, and hopefully they will be able to provide an insight into how to remedy the situation." That was assuming that Ghost hadn't already talked to Hermione and that the portrait wouldn't ignore her, but at this point Kate was bordering on desperate optimism.

"Very well, I will do my best to convince the other Council Members that this was a single mistake, an attempt to hide our true capabilities from the Aliens at the worst possible time. But this **has** to be a turning point Commander, both for you and X-Com as a whole."

Azrael paused for a second, and it was clear that he was struggling to maintain a level composure.

"We cannot afford to risk the lives of X-Com non-combatants on missions if we can hope to succeed against these Aliens, the attacks on Civilians is already an unacceptable loss. Get Operative Ghost back on side Commander, by whatever means necessary. The rest can come later… Council out." With that rather abrupt dismissal, the screen shifted to static for a moment before shutting down, leaving Kate alone with thoughts that were almost as dark as the room she occupied.

Contrary to the popular belief amongst the X-Com staff, who were nowhere near as good at keeping their voices down as they obviously thought they were, Kate wasn't an emotionless and uncaring robot of a Commander. It was why she took the time to meet each new member of X-Com in person, as she knew she was ultimately responsible for that person and that well-being whilst they were part of her 'family'.

"Okay Kate, get it together. You are going to be fine." Even as she started a little mantra to herself, and began the deep breathing techniques she had learnt a long time ago, Kate knew she was anything but fine.

Obi and the flight crew weren't the first soldiers she had lost following her orders, the Wall of Remembrance that Harry had created a poignant reminder of that if nothing else. But unlike the others she had lost, both within X-Com and before, these were the first people who had died because _she_ had stopped them having the equipment that could have saved their lives.

Not bad luck, or the enemy having superior numbers and technology, but directly because she had punished them in an attempt to make her position and authority as Commander of X-Com clear to them all.

"There is no way you could have predicted this Kate, don't let your head become your own worst enemy. Given the descriptions of these Creepers, the extra gear probably wouldn't have changed things…" Hindsight was a wonderfully terrible thing in this kind of situation, her thoughts jumping to each and every slight decision that could have potentially changed things, and what _she_ could have done that would have meant four members of _her team_ were down in the bar rather than the morgue.

"Ah shit…" Even as the thoughts bombarded her mind, Kate could feel the slight stinging of tears as they appeared at the corners of her eyes, and their arrival meant the barriers she spent so much time maintaining shattered.

Probably best if she didn't leave the conference room for a while…

!"£$%^&*()_+

 **Millstatt Am See, At roughly the same time**

 **?, ?**

The steady rain, that had swept in during the early morning, meant that the formerly green fields that surrounded the outskirts of the town were now nothing more than muddy swamps. Transformed by the large number of military units that had traversed through them in such a short amount of time.

Whilst most of the NATO troops were now working to keep the area cordoned off, due to a 'large scale chemical accident', there were small groups that were assigned to clear the town of anything that could later indicate that something else had occurred. Of course, with such a large number of units called in at such short notice, no one had been truly 'in command' of the different units from all across NATO.

That meant, when a platoon of mixed nationality soldiers in black camouflage gear appeared with a large amount of sensor and monitoring gear to help with the search, there had been only a few confused questions. Once the papers about them being a 'Special Operations NATO unit' had been proved genuine, no one had batted an eyelid.

The fact that they all wore full breather gear and had every inch of their skin covered was mostly just written off a quirk of the unit's commander, who even now was stood on Millstatt's main street, his body language screaming at the desire for action.

"We're clear Operator, the only units left in the town are ours." The call from the man to his left, who had been talking over the satellite phone each unit carried with them, made a small smirk appear on the Commander's face as he gestured excitedly.

"Excellent, move the bodies we hid here and call for transport." The six men around him nodded and moved away without a word, leaving the man to reach up and remove the gas mask covering his face.

As the gas mask dropped away, dangling partway down his chest off the special strap attached to the neck of his combat vest, a pair of yellow tinged snake like eyes surveyed the area from within a palid and sunken face.

Grabbing his own satellite phone, which was a far more high tech version than the one his subordinate, he typed in a six digit code, pausing for a moment whilst the phone's screen flashed blue for a moment, before typing in a sixteen digit code and bringing it to his ear.

"High Commune, the fools at X-Com have finally let down their guard." There was a pause, as there was the sound of voices on the other end of the phone, before the man spoke once more.

"Judging by the orders given to the other military units by X-Com forces before they departed, the Aliens are like a parasite and infect those they fell. That means that there will be _plenty_ of Alien material for us to use." Another pause, before the smile widened into a full smirk, revealing a set of sharpened teeth that were reminiscent of a shark.

"Trackers were applied to several of the bodies that X-Com have 'quarantined'. By the time they find them, we will have a legitimate excuse for knowing where there base is. I will assemble an infiltration squad once we reach Base Theta, and then we can show X-Com the true power of EXALT...

 **A/N: Things were going a little too well, weren't they? Admittedly, this is probably a little too much 'instant karma' for some people, but I like to think the Aliens aren't going to sit back and follow a 'schedule' if their testing teams are being massacred.**

 **Hence the 'early' arrival of the Chryssalids. I can't see X-Com operatives calling them as such on first contact, so Creepers it became. Given the whole 'zombies turning into Chryssalids' thing, I have decided that such a thing takes an awful lot longer than in game, otherwise the Aliens wouldn't even have to send in Mutons, a dozen Chryssalids deployed in several different cities at the same time would wipe humanity off the map.**

 **Not exactly conducive to the alien plan to 'harvest' human DNA, but it is not like X-Com know that…**

 **So Harry now feels like his powers are responsible for the deaths of 4 people he didn't even know, and the Commander shows that above all else she is still human. I think this helps flesh the characters out a bit more, but let me know what you think.**

 **This is considerably darker than usual from me, partially because I felt the story needed a bit more gritty realism, but also because unfortunately this is more lifelike in my opinion. Heroes aren't capable of shrugging everything off without a care, and even the best of them will start to breakdown if the world seems to be against them.**

 **Next Chapter will start to see the appearance of EXALT properly, the 'all white, all male' organisation that felt a little too stereotypical supremacist group to me… So I changed it, whilst the 'working class zealots' will still exist, one does not become a massive organisation focussed on global domination with just grass roots fanatics.**

 **We will have to see how this goes from here…**

 **Below is the team Rosters, with code names and any other pertinent information, as someone pointed out I have introduced the Code names without really providing much of an official introduction:**

 **Sabre Team:**

 **Private (Lieutenant) Rodriguez 'Avenger' De Cote: Former leader of Sabre Team, and currently on probation within X-Com as a whole, the loss of the other two members of Delta team weighed heavily on Rodriguez…**

 **Sergeant Grace 'Avalanche' Kelly: The youngest member of the 'Triple A' team, Grace took over as Team Lead when Rodriguez was demoted. Though, given her easy going attitude, Grace was more than prepared to let Avenger keep giving the orders for the most part.**

 **Corporal Fahid 'Argonaut' Hassan: The former 'lone wolf' of Sabre team, Fahid has been forced to rein in his tendencies of being the first into the fight, after Tomasz' death was in part due to his actions. Wracked with guilt, and struggling to determine his part in X-Com's greater picture, Fahid's focus is solely on fighting the Aliens that killed his teammate and friend.**

 **Skyhammer Team:**

 **Lieutenant Kumiko 'Samurai' Goto: Leader of Skyhammer team, Kumiko has the most experience with Operative Ghost, both on and off the battlefield. That knowledge has earned him her respect, but his destructive powers have also earned a healthy amount of caution.**

 **Sergeant Erin 'Thor' King: The youngest member of X-Com, Erin is collectively considered the 'little sister' of at least half of the base staff, as much as she hates being treated differently for her age. Despite the horrors she has experienced whilst fighting the Alien invaders, Erin has retained much of her cheerful and innocent attitude that makes her so easy to get along with.**

 **Corporal Hans Pieters: Former member of the German Kommandos, Hans is the oldest serving member of the X-Com Strike teams, and as such has the experience to back up his somewhat abrasive attitude. Before X-Com, Hans thought he had seen every surprise that could be hidden away in redacted files, and he struggles with the revelations of both the Aliens and Ghost's powers.**

 **Corporal Alessandra Rossi: Whilst Alessandra holds many of the sharpshooting records in the Italian Army, this list of accomplishments is only match by the reprimands and marks against her, both for fighting and for disrespecting her superior officers. How much of this is due to Alessandra's disrespect for authority figures, and how much is due to Italy's still male dominated command structure, is something that Alessandra is more than happy to 'discuss' after a few drinks at the bar.**

 **Big thanks to Treant Balewood, Eirik, Thomas Smith, Michael Thomas and Druid, for being supporters of my work. I'm still getting goosebumps when I write stuff like that. :P And if anyone wants to become a Fanling of mine (see previous chapter and/or search 'Defiasstone2' on Google), I would be hugely grateful.**

 **Anyway, let me know what you think boys and girls!**

 **Defias Out!**


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